Adding Wind Vane Steering To Nimrodel
After our trip to holland last year and seeing the power consumption for a 46 hour trip back across the North Sea, I decided that if at all possible I would add some form of wind vane steering for our next trip, especially as we would like to be away for much longer and sailing much further than our 2018 trip to Holland.
As luck would have it I mentioned looking into wind self steering systems and that I had decided on building my own to a friend at the marina, he has a very nice 45' ex-race boat with a Wind Pilot Pacific on the transom that hadn't been used for the last 20 years, he said I could remove it and fit it to Nimrodel as he had no use for it and refused to take any money which is amazing.
The Wind Pilot Pacific was well and truly seized but after many choice words I finally had it stripped down, cleaned and moving freely again. The worm and gear to adjust the angle of the vane to to wind was so fragile after being in the elements for so long it was turning to powder at the slightest touch, I found a great little place in Cleethorpes called Humberside Gears that could make me up a new one for much less money than I expected to be paying, it took just under a week to make the gear which gave me time to mess about trying to place the steering gear on the transom without moving the boarding ladder, it finally turned out to be impossible without moving the brackets so far out from the ladder it rendered it unusable so the ladder was moved to the port side of the transom.
As luck would have it I mentioned looking into wind self steering systems and that I had decided on building my own to a friend at the marina, he has a very nice 45' ex-race boat with a Wind Pilot Pacific on the transom that hadn't been used for the last 20 years, he said I could remove it and fit it to Nimrodel as he had no use for it and refused to take any money which is amazing.
The Wind Pilot Pacific was well and truly seized but after many choice words I finally had it stripped down, cleaned and moving freely again. The worm and gear to adjust the angle of the vane to to wind was so fragile after being in the elements for so long it was turning to powder at the slightest touch, I found a great little place in Cleethorpes called Humberside Gears that could make me up a new one for much less money than I expected to be paying, it took just under a week to make the gear which gave me time to mess about trying to place the steering gear on the transom without moving the boarding ladder, it finally turned out to be impossible without moving the brackets so far out from the ladder it rendered it unusable so the ladder was moved to the port side of the transom.
