modified walt murray windvane self steering

[sugar magnolia]

I have been building a windvane for a month or so. Last night I cast the lead for the counterweight (that was really fun and cool!) and finalized  the attachment of the vane to its carrier. I just put it all together and took some pictures. They are available here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.w.fowler87/WindvaneProject# Although I haven't decided how exactly I am going to attach the whole assembly to the boat, or the vane-mast height and a few other details, initial opinions are high. Friction is pretty low, it was moving around in the little puffs of breeze that found their way into my backyard. Can't wait to get it mounted and start sea trials.

my gear is a modification of Walt's Model 2004, available here: http://www.mindspring.com/~waltmur/Self-Steering/advanced.htm. His site is an excellent resource for anyone considering windvane self steering, whether you are considering building or just want information on what to look for in a manufactured gear. He claims that the upside down or USD vane works better than many production gears, but the added complexity of constructing one, the higher center of gravity, and greater space requirements turned me off. Depending on how well this works I may experiment more.

My vane would have been more easily/quickly/accurately built with a drill press and better metalworking equipment, but I think the performance/appearance differences would have been only slight.

Feel free to contact me about anything regarding the project

[CapnK]

Wow, Kevin, that looks great! Inspirational, too! :)

[JWalker]

Grog to you sir for a great experiment!

I hope to do one of those some day. some day..... ::)

[Capt. Tony]

That is cool, Kevin.  Very few manufactured vanes have a 'graceful' means of attachment.  So one nice thing about building your own vane is you can put as much care and design into mounting it as you did into building it.  Judging from the photos of Sugar Magnolia you'll do it up right.

I remember going to Walt's site when the 20-20 model was 'it'.  He did a great job of disecting self-steering gear and explaining it to the layman.  And his diagrams were/are imensely handy for reference.  I'll admit, at first I didn't like the USD models based solely on the fact that it didn't look like other SS vanes out there.  But if they are a better mouse trap I may have to change my point of view.  Hats off to you for paving the way and building one.  It's on my 'to do' list but I still go back and forth betwenn USD or standing vane design.  Either way, the cost of manufactured units prohibits me from buying one and I'll always be the kind of guy that spends twice as much to build it myself ;)

[sugar magnolia]

In my "restoration" thread I promised information on testing the windvane so here is what I can say right now

I actually broke a small wooden linkage (walt called for nylon blocks, I built my from wood with nylon bushings) last week while trying to disengage the system, so I discovered I  needed to devise a way to get the blade free from the vane's control so I can manually turn it and get it to climb out of the water and also replace the parts I broke
I've also been fighting with servo-blade bouyancy (blade wants to float and turn the boat)
before the video was taken I drilled holes in the blade and poured in molten lead (really cool task) and still had to lash a 20oz fishing sinker to the trailing edge

tonight I just re-designed the broken linkage combining two of walt murray's designs(pics when I know it works-haha) and also I shortened the blade which seems to have solved the bouyancy issue
next trip to the boat I will be installing proper turning blocks for the control lines and testing tonights improvements

[FreeBird]

Hi Kevin, all I can say is Wow! I copied the same plans for the windvane years ago but just never got around to starting the project. With the sailing season slowly coming to an end you have given me inspiration to go ahead and give this project a try.

Nice work. I would like to hear more about the sea trials.