January 25 , 2001
Who's Driving?

On our 800-mile passage from New Caledonia to Brisbane we take it easy, reading in the deckhouse while "Windy", our Monitor windvane, does all the work.

When we bought our boat in 1994 we were discussing our cruising plans with Steve Dashew and he made a throwaway comment that we would "...never hand-steer the boat, except when you're coming in to moor." We weren't convinced; we both love to helm and though we knew we would use the autopilot extensively on long passages we expected to steer by hand a lot too. We were both right. We don't helm for a very high percentage of our passage time, but we do both still love to take the helm for an hour or so when the sailing is good.

We fitted the boat with an Autohelm 7000 and though we looked into fitting a windvane, the various manufacturers did not think their models would cope with a Sundeer 64. A gust of wind accelerates the boat, and the wind is pulled forward so the vane heads the boat up. When the gust passes, the wind goes back aft and the vane steers the boat off again. When hand-steering, increasing and decreasing the weather helm would accommodate this, but a vane works with a fixed amount of weather helm. Consequently, we would scallop along rather than steer a straight course. So, initially we thought the Autohelm had to suffice.

Why a Windvane?

Before we set off across the Pacific in 1999 we looked into it again. There were several reasons why we did.

1) We regularly used the Autohelm on the windvane function, so if it could cope, maybe a mechanical windvane could.
2) The BOC Round the World boats seem to have striking similarities to the Sundeer 64 and they were fitted with windvanes.
3) We didn't want to cross that most peaceful of oceans listening to the Autohelm sawing away like a violin with flu.
4) We wanted a backup system in case our Autohelm failed.

After a bit of research and much helpful advice from Scanmar we bought a Monitor windvane.

Performance

It has worked perfectly and steered us over 15,000 miles to date. It is our preferred steering method at all times when we are sailing. The Autohelm is used for motoring and very occasionally when the apparent wind is especially light. The Monitor copes when the gennekers are up and it has never put the boat through an accidental gybe (unlike the crew).

In terms of maintenance, we have had to replace the control lines a couple of times and a few welds have had to be beefed up, but given the stresses involved, we aren't surprised. We have also rigged a tiller pilot so that it will steer using the vane while motoring if the Autohelm fails us.

The only thing the Monitor requires is that the sails be set well (it will not steer if the trim is wrong so it acts as a kind of conscience too). We need to reef slightly earlier than we might otherwise, but it is invariably the case that the boat goes faster when not overpressed. It is as efficient upwind as downwind, except close downwind in light airs. Disadvantages? None, except that it has made the swim step a little harder to use.

For anyone planning a long passage we could not recommend a windvane enough. It is silent, uses no power and steers like a real helmsman, by the lift of the waves as well as the wind. We still hand-steer occasionally and with good concentration we can beat the boat speed achieved by the windvane, but the Monitor can do it for 24 hours a day, day after day, much longer than our concentration span.

We set the vane as soon as we had cleared the Passe de Boulari leaving New Caledonia and detached it for the last few miles down Moreton Bay to Brisbane. An 800-mile passage without a complaint or single loss of concentration.

Well done, Windy!