Question: Do you prefer a windvane or an autopilot for longer passages? I currently only have an autopilot and am wondering if I should fit a windvane as well? My boat is a Nauticat 32 (10 meters) displacing 5.4 tons.
Answer: On Morgan’s Cloud we have both and I think there are very good arguments for this ‘belt and suspenders’ approach, particularly for the typical cruising boat that will be sailed double handed much of the time.
In fact, I believe that reliable steering is not a luxury but a necessity for short handed boats on any passage that will last longer than a day. Even on a passage that will last just a single night, a double handed crew will be very tired by the time they reach their landfall if they have been forced to steer the whole way; and tired sailors have accidents. Also, it is not possible for a single watch stander to properly sail the boat, navigate, and manage vessel traffic while being glued to the helm.
The key word in all of this is ‘reliable’. Even a really beefy properly installed autopilot system—and many, perhaps most, are not—will fail at some time. The same goes for a windvane, although perhaps to a lesser extent. But if you have both, you have a reasonable chance of having some way to self steer at all times. One of my tougher sailing experiences was a three day beat to windward, singlehanded, against a reinforced trade wind and big seas, from Saint Maarten to Barbados. The autopilot died the first day and I would have been truly up the creek without the vane gear. Incidentally I broke that too, but the great thing about vane gears is that they are often fixable at sea with the tools to hand (mine was); not so autopilots.
Also, both systems have their strengths and weaknesses: We use the autopilot most of the time as we find it easier to set up and use, particularly on shorter trips, but on a long passage, like a tradewind transatlantic, steering with the vane gear cuts our total electrical consumption in half.
Finally, I believe that any cruising boat that goes offshore should be able to function and complete her passage after a total electrical failure. Autopilots will be quickly rendered useless by a failure of the boat’s primary electrical generation method—often the main engine—and this may still be the case even if the boat has solar cells or a wind generator since autopilots are power hogs and only high output power generation systems can keep up with their demands.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
Just read through all the excellent advice on autopilots. Like most we have a wind vane (Hydrovane) which works brilliantly. Would also like an autopilot. Have hydraulic steering so have considered both Simrad / Raymarine systems. Have come across the idea of flitting a ‘cheap’ tiller pilot to the vane of the wind vane. Tiller pilot steers vane /vane steers boat. Simple? Anyone have experience of doing this? Yacht is Bruce Roberts Mauritious / steel 43ft (wheel), though none of this should matter as it’s the rudder of the Hydrovane doing all the work …?
Hi Vera
We’re thinking of going down this route ourselves, having met two very experienced couples this year who use this system alone, with a main autopilot as a back-up.
The only downside I’ve heard of is that Windpilot (who made our gear) don’t recommend that you use this for motoring, as they feel it causes too much wear on the self-steering gear. As we have a powerful plumbed in pilot this isn’t an issue for us, as we use that solely for motoring.
Best wishes
Colin
Thanks for response Colin – have just had response from Hydrovane, they suggest the best way is to fit emergency tiller (comes with Hydrovane windpilot) and with extension to this fit autopilot. We will try this first …
A third option is self steering by balancing the sails & setting the sheets. This works great on my boat which is heavy displacement & has a full keel. Think John & I discussed this elsewhere.
Hi,
We have a 43 feet wood epoxy (twin rudderswith tillers) 10 tons cruising boat (Irisoft 44 name Tara).
We have had since 6 years a NKE autopilot with an hydraulic cylinder from Lecomble and Schmitt. The system is mounted directly on the rudderpost inside a dry compartment with easy access.
So far (6 years, 2 month per year, from Spain to Lofoten) we have had no problem, and be very happy with the unit, and some of its features like MOB and wireless command. 6 months ago, we had a preventive factory control of the cylinder with minor replacements.
While preparing a refit of Tara in 2 years prior to an increase in our time spent on board (4 to 5 months per year, hopefully…) we have been thinking about that “belt and suspenders” question.
We came to the conclusion that we would, for a budget similar to a windvane, rather buy a Watt and See power generator (http://www.wattandsea.com/) and a stand by a back up tiller autopilot like Raymarine ST 2000+.
Power generator will provide plenty of energy beyond powering the autopilot, and the tiller autopilot will do the job in a back up situation, even if we may need to sail “underpowered” in such circumstances…
Best regards,
François
That’s a pretty expensive windvane if you can buy a Watt&Sea and a Raymarine ST 2000 for the same price.
Hi Francois
Good to hear of your experiences, and I’m particularly interested in your comments on the NKE pilot, which I know is very popular in France (especially with offshore racers), but is less well known in anglo sailing circles.
And I really like everything about those Watt and Sea units – except the price…
Best wishes
Colin
Colin,
I agree with your comment on the price of the Watt and See units.
But feedback after 2 years of use both racing and crusing boats is very solid, both on energy production and reliability. It can be removed and stored quite easily as well, due to relatively low weight (good for harbour manoeuvers.
We had the NKE unit installed new as we build the boat 6 years ago.
The only issue we had was a leak at the cable connexion with the unit, which created humidity inside the unit. This was replaced under warranty.
We have 3 units placed in the cokpit and at the chart table all diplaying and monitoring all the parameters (Wind, deepth, speed etc…) ,and the autopilot with heading, true and realitve wind, etc…) The autopilot has a Gyro unit such as the autopilot stears the boat in heavy wind as a good sailor would do (going into the wind while climbing the wave..), and so far none of us has been able to better perform than the pilot in most conditions. We have 3 radio units that are about one third of a iphone in size, and are such that when they become 30 meters distand from the boat, their create noise and action on the rudder ( that can be set differently if you are sailing single handed or with a crew.) One of the unit can also steer the boat +/- one or 10 degrees, and engage or disengage the AP. So when we sail at night or in heavy wind, every memeber of the crew that is in the cokpit carries one od the 3 units. We had one time in 6 years to reset the computer of the autopilot (no identified cause), which took 15 mn and did not requested any assistance. All in all, very satisfied and would not do with another AP, except B&G, but it is a completely different price range
Don’t hesitate to request for more info if needed.
Best regards,
Francois
I have a Cape Horn and can hook-up a tiller controlling autopilot to it, below decks. As the autopilot is only actuating the Cape Horn, it uses minimum power. While above deck autopilots are infamous for failing it is because of being out in the weather; being able to mount it below decks solves that problem. It also works fine under power. BTW, I use it on an Allied Seawind IIK, mostly singlehanded.