Wind Vane Steering company

[Loren Beach]

https://www.hollandwindvane.com/self-steering/index.htm

No personal interest, but I was following a discussion on another sailing site and found a company that is new to me.
Looks like they sell kits for owner assembly.
Anyone here used one?

 

[Christian Williams]

A kit is a marvelous idea. These things aren't all that complicated, just a lot of parts beyond any home workshop.

You could copy a Sailomat, but that would require cutting and bending aluminum plate, anodizing, and forming the oar--which needs to be metal, for immersion, and streamlined.

Not sure I'm on board with the "look" of this one. It does seem to come off the transom easily, which I think is useful for storage.

 

[Teranodon]

I remember a particular graveyard watch on a transatlantic crossing. The windvane was steering the Van der Stadt 37 through the huge rollers, so I was just sitting alone in the cockpit, staring at it. Having studied a little control theory, I was wondering what the equation looked like, and whether the designers had actually used a mathematical formalism, or just tried different mechanical configurations and settings. Then, just for the hell of it, I reached down and torqued the rudder. To my amazement, the vane moved! With all of its gears and levers and counterweights, the thing was backdrivable!! So the pressure of the water, as well as the pressure of the wind, were in the control equation. I simply couldn't believe it, and instantly gave up trying to figure out how a human could come up with a design for such a system. Windvanes are amazing!

 

[Geoff W.]

That's quite a nice price compared to some of the others. Glad to see more options getting posted on the site, I'd much rather spend $2500 and some elbow grease than $5k+

 

[Sailingfun]

Wonderful! Price is sensible less than any other wind vane on the market. Seems very similar at an hydrovane. Interesting...