PS: I had a lovely weekend on the boat with the cheese and kisses. A couple of nice sails between eating, snorkelling and sleeping.

Overnight at Q Station where we went to the Boiler House bar type place for dinner and met a couple in their 30's doing the same from their Triton 24. Had a good time drinking and eating pizza then stumbled back to the dinghies where I made some very loud, expletive-laden joke. At that point a Wildlife officer of some kind appeared out of the dark to very politely ask us if we could be quite as the Fairy Penguins were trying to make their way out of the water. Behind him were about a dozen figures huddled silently in the dark in the middle of a very special wildlife experience...

... before we four drunken bogans bumbled onto the scene! Sorry wildlife watchers! Sorry penguins!

Dont worry McN, I have a Flemming and have the same problem

Definitely a "Monitor" wind vane
regards,
allan

May try and use my Flemming.......Does the wind vane NEED to be perpendicular ???

Lexmark said..
May try and use my Flemming.......Does the wind vane NEED to be perpendicular ???

No. Light weather I have mine vertical and in fresh conditions rake it back to reduce power a bit. One day I looked out of the cabin on a windy day and noticed it had dropped back to the horizontal position, steered perfectly well so I left it.

Libran said..

McNaughtical said..

cisco said..

HG02 said..

DrRog said..

Ramona said..
Good photo of the Monitor self steering.

I've looked and re-looked but for the life of me I can't find a self-steering unit in those photos!

over Mc nauticals right shoulder

Nah!! Over her right shoulder I see the yacht club.

Below her right shoulder I see a mechanical device that is missing it's sensor component.

That is my Aries Wind Vane, that I have not used yet... have no clue how to use it.

Looks almost identical to my "Monitor" wind vane

What is the sensor component???

Went for a motor sail overnight to a remote island. used Autopilot most of the trip as I do. :)

McNaughtical said..

Libran said..

McNaughtical said..

cisco said..

HG02 said..

DrRog said..

Ramona said..
Good photo of the Monitor self steering.

I've looked and re-looked but for the life of me I can't find a self-steering unit in those photos!

over Mc nauticals right shoulder

Nah!! Over her right shoulder I see the yacht club.

Below her right shoulder I see a mechanical device that is missing it's sensor component.

That is my Aries Wind Vane, that I have not used yet... have no clue how to use it.

Looks almost identical to my "Monitor" wind vane

What is the sensor component???

The "Blade " is probably stowed down stairs somewhere. They are fairly delicate and should not be left on the vane when not in use. No that's not me!

McNaughtical said..


What is the sensor component???

The wind vane itself which could be a piece of plywood about 150 mm wide that slots into the swivel bit on top. You might need to have three of them ranging in length from about 350 mm long to say 750 mm long to suit various wind strengths.

It is the wind "sensor" or the "data input" component which will control what the rest of the mechanism does.

Hi McN..,
I have the same windvane, a "Monitor"
Google 'Monitor Windvane' & you'll find many videos - it's simple to use and once you learn how to sue it, you'll love it.
regards,
allan

southace said..

HG02 said..
What movie did you watch on the way S.A.?

Hows Icon working out for you after you've put your mark on her?

We had Nick Cave "God is in the house" live music DVD cranked with the big screen and surround sound, leg of lamb in the oven and cold beers flowing.

Shes a tough boat and now I have updated most of the outdated or broke components it's getting close to just the preventive maintance jobs.

I tensioned the rig myself last week and now have much better forestay tension ........strangely it looks like it took some bend out of the mast ? She sails much nicer now to windward.

I will be adding another 120w solar panel , nasa battery monitor and 400 amp of battery's and for now that's it!

I'm still wondering what that phones wired to South Ace is it room service or what ?

Jode5 said..
No one is going any where in North Queensland, as it is currently blowing 30k SE .We and about 20 other boats have been in Mackay Marina for a week waiting to go south. Ever body is complaining about the constant South Easters. At this stage it looks like there will be a mass exodus out of here on Wednesday morning.

So it is a waiting game called "Who is game to go first."

With a yacht like yours I would be jumping the gun. Middle Percy is just a day down the road, even if it meant motoring all the way. The A frame bay is good for a southerly, more enjoyable than Mackay and certainly much cheaper.

Had a great sail in the Cook Island race, unfortunately for me it was a close reach down and a close reach back as the wind backed to the North East so the little old s an s 34 got swallowed up by the more modern, bigger and faster boats and I ended up last over the line, which didn't really matter because I was disqualified for not meeting the min crew requirement.

Things are getting worse in Mackay Marina. 6.00am this morning in a big 30k rain squall the 80' 60ton steel heap of garbage ( below ) that has not moved for 3 years broke it's front mooring line a slammed in to the side of my boat resulting in bent stanchions and scratched side. It could have been a lot worse but for the swift action of all the other boat owners round. The broke who lives on the boat weighs over 300kg and can not even get out of his bedroom and after we got the boat back in place his wife emerged, lit a cigarette and said nothing. In the process it also ripped the power bollard (a super yacht one)from the marina and destroyed it, which the marina is not happy about. I don't think they have insurance even though you are supposed to have to be in a marina. From what I can make out the marina can not get rid of them. Anyway they told the marina manager to tell me to get a quote for the repairs and they will fix me up with cash, so the quote for repairs is $640.00 which I give them this afternoon. The lady said she would pay me tomorrow, so let's hope so. Anyway the weather is looking good to get out of here on Wednesday, thank God.

Well I had a bit of excitement this morning. Sailing offshore and probably only a mile off the entrance sailing East close hauled, windvane steering. Just happened to glance forward and a whale broached dead ahead. I was about to T bone him. Disconnected vane and put the helm hard over and through the wind on a 360 with the sheets still cleated. Bow missed him by a couple of feet and as his head passed the cockpit he saw me and sounded. I was dragging the camera out of my pocket as I held the tiller over and of course I only got his wake. Resumed course and he appeared astern about a hundred metres heading in a different direction. Did not actually touch him.
Now I have had plenty of encounters with whales over the years, especially when I was a fisherman and had a few touches when stationary, but this one was going to hurt. With the fishing boat they are always aware of you but a yacht they have no clue. Dodged two others shortly afterwards and as the breeze freshened and there were white caps I could not relax and headed for the beach and home.