Well I would consider windvane self steering a must for cruising long distance. But, I was wondering what you "old salts" think. I was talking to an old guy who took me sailing a few weeks ago on his spacesailer 24. He used to have a Van De Stat 37ft he did a fair few trips on that in the pacific apparently.

He swears by his Aries windvane, I have been told by others that Monitors are fantastic, but I'm not sure about that. Every long trip I have seen with a monitor has ended with the windvane breaking. The recent version of "Golden Globe", ARC, Parmelia Race.
I have heard similar things with the Navik

I reckon Flemings and Aries as the best of them all. What do you guys think?