Wind vane auto-steering?

[Breakin Wind]

Last summer I carried a little notebook and pencil in a ziplock bag in my boat so I could jot down questions and ideas as they occurred to me (generally about sailing or problems associated there-with).

I was flipping through that notebook today and came across an item from early last summer when I was first facing the challenges of trying to keep my bow pointed into the wind in order to raise & lower the sails. In the weeks & months following that note, I improved my sail management processes (tiller tamer, jib furler and mainsail mast gate) to make the transitions easier, but even late in the year I remember being frustrated having to constantly reach back to nudge the tiller trying to keep pointed upwind when trying to reef the mainsail or addressing something else forward.

A thought had occurred to me back then about using some form of wind vane and linkage to keep the boat pointed upwind. After doing a couple drawings, I came up with several possible options, but it occurs to me now (again) that I can't have been the first one to come across this challenge. So I'll ask here before I continue down a redundant path reinventing the wheel. I should establish that in my planning, I would assume to be under power for that activity (i.e. trolling motor) as opposed to drifting backward which I know has it's own new series of dynamics.

Is anyone had any experience with a wind vane (or otherwise) tiller control system to keep a DSII sized boat (under power) pointed into the wind? I've seen references to autopilots out there, but I'm thinking those are probably for more for extended duration trips rather than 2-3 minutes here and there and probably prohibitively expensive for such limited use.

As always, I would appreciate any information and/or thoughts on this subject.

Thanks - Scott

[TIM WEBB]

Hi Scott,

OK, here goes, my first attempt at posting on the "new forum":

KISS it. You don't need any of that fancy stuff. Just heave to!

Here's what I do on the lake I usually sail on, Lake Dias, just North of Deland, FL, which is very narrow at the ramp end BTW:

Splash the boat with CB, rudder and motor (troller) up. Both sails are already bent on and ready to raise. Tie off to the dock and park the car. Back in the boat, lower rudder and motor, put motor in F or R depending on wind direction, loose the dockline(s), and get away from the dock (and all the crazy bass boats zooming around).

Troll out away from the mayhem, get the boat pointed into the wind (actually optional, as the boat will find the wind on it's own), drop the CB, and kill the motor. Use the tiller tamer to lash the tiller hard to port. Raise the jib, and sheet it to starboard (windward). The boat is now in "neutral", so to speak. It will drift gently along while I raise the main. Main goes up, with main sheet loose so that main can swing out to port. Boat is still in neutral, or "hove to". Now's the time to do any last minute chores like pulling up the motor, stowing halyards, setting vang, putting in a reef, opening bailer plug, cracking a cold one, whatever, etc. When you're ready, you just reset the tamer for amidships, sheet the jib to leeward, sheet in the main, come about, and go on your merry way! ;-P

(BTW, I too keep pencil and paper on the boat to write down observations, doodles, and random musings while on the water. Sometimes back at home I look at what I've written and think "I'd have never thought of that unless I was actually on the water sailing!")

[jdoorly]

Scott, I have a Raymarine TillerPilot (a servo controlled actuator) and I would rate it 5 out of 10. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The reason it doesn't is usually caused by it's control process which simply isn't fast enough. It often seems to be 'too little too late'. I think it's not meant to be installed on centerboarders (too responsive). The instructions specified it should be installed 18" forward of the tiller pivot. Because I had this trouble with it I moved my attachment point first 12" in front of the pivot, then 6", which speed up it's reaction time but only slightly improved performance. Even with the sails down if I set a coarse directly into the wind it will quickly allow the boat fall off and end up with the servo driving to an end stop. The last 3 times out I used my tiller clutch exclusively.

I like Tim's method for raising sail and will try it in the Spring.

[GreenLake]

KISS it. You don't need any of that fancy stuff. Just heave to!

Absolutely agree with what Tim writes here.

Scott,

wind-vane self-steering is something that belongs on a keelboat that is being used for passagemaking. It has no place on a dinghy.

A simple tiller tamer will work in many situations. On my longest single-handing trip of the season, I ended up going on a close reach for nearly an hour with the tiller held by the tiller tamer and the sails trimmed to balance the boat - I didn't have to touch either sheet or tiller for that period. If the wind luffed, the DS headed up slightly on it's own, if it slackened it would head down a bit. (What was particularly fun about this experience was that it happened at night, with just city-shine for illumination; made it seem even more magical). That worked in winds of perhaps 6-8 knots.

Once the wind gets much stronger, you risk capsizing by not being ready to use your tiller and/or sheets for an active response to gusts.

When using the motor, I also only use a tiller tamer if I need to keep a near constant heading for a while. The tiller tamer will not work "perfectly", which requires occasional intervention, but I see that as a feature - it prevents me from mentally handing over to a device.

Fit a tiller tamer and enjoy sailing.

Mine is based on a bungee, so it has some "give" to it, which I credit with magical properties

I string a bungee across the cockpit, and I don't fix the tiller to it directly, but rather wrap something (a bit of thin bungee) around both tiller and the main bungee cord. That attachment will slide, if I grab the tiller and push or pull hard. It means I can tack w/o needing to take any action other then using a bit more force steering. When I let go, the tiller simply stays close to the last place I had it - I may need to jerk it a bit to make the attachment slide into the perfect position along the main bungee cord. That's it.

[GreenLake]

I took the liberty to split the thread here and put the remainder of the discussion under "Questions about Reefing" in "Rigging".

That topic had become the tail that wags the dog, so hopefully, people will have an easier time finding the reefing info now.

Enjoy.