Self steering windvanes and proas
Do self steering windvanes work on proas? Would you have to install two of the vanes, each at either end?
Or are people just going with a tillerpilot?
Haven’t tried it on a proa but have thought about it. I would mount a single vane out on the ama where it would have clean air, and would expect it to work better than a stern mounted position where it gets the dirty air off the sail. The challenge is to have a low friction transfer to the trim tab on the rudder.
Gary
A well designed proa should be so well balanced a self steering can be very simple. (Cheers had none, but just kept a good course). Speaking with Pete Hill about his new catamaran, Oryx, he has fitted a vertical vane with no servo, which worked fine on his last cat after the servo was broken off. Cooking Fat also is similar. With no servo, the vane can easily be moved, though with a proa, it would be to windward, with only the tiller lines to be swapped between tacks.
Mark
A well designed proa should be so well balanced a self steering can be very simple. (Cheers had none, but just kept a good course). ......
You are correct Mark, CHEERS never had a self-steering gear. But, when Dick first designed her, he thought that she’d have to have one. In the first drawings he did have the self-steering in them.
CHEERS turned out to be firly easy to set-up and balance to steer herself. But, if someone was to install a self-steering gear it might work best, if it wwas directly attached to the rudder(s), and not the Hasler type servo blade type.
Cheers,
Halsted
A well designed proa should be so well balanced a self steering can be very simple. (Cheers had none, but just kept a good course). ......
You are correct Mark, CHEERS never had a self-steering gear. But, when Dick first designed her, he thought that she’d have to have one. In the first drawings he did have the self-steering in them.
CHEERS turned out to be firly easy to set-up and balance to steer herself. But, if someone was to install a self-steering gear it might work best, if it wwas directly attached to the rudder(s), and not the Hasler type servo blade type.
Cheers,
Halsted
I forgot to also mention that, THREE CHREES also had two ceterboards. The one up forward was used to balence THREE CHEERS for self steering. THREE CHEERS was also good at self steering with this agrangement.
Halsted