Retired from newspapers and television, currently sailing Thelonious II, a 1984 Ericson 381.
I recently ordered a new wind vane, this one from Cape Horn. The decision required a review of my own thinking about self-steering, its value, mission and practicality. The Sailomat 800 had served me well on two singlehanded Hawaii sails, and proved itself across the board as a problem-free crewmate in all conditions, from 40 knots on the beam to long days dead downwind, sometimes with quartering seas that make hand steering exhausting. The fact is, however, that I had entered into an arrangement for sharing the vane with a fellow forum member who has cruising plans of his own. Covid puts him thousands of miles away at the moment. And although he was willing to lend me the vane back, I'd have to return it to him afterwards.
Wind vane gears get to be personal. They steer while you sleep, and their mechanism is close to magic in its ability to transfer a slight alteration in wind angle to a major rudder correction, and without so much as a whimper. To the susceptible imagination of a lone sailor they seem loyal as a favorite dog, almost alive, always faithful. To own one also reveals a potential best hidden from others, and maybe from oneself: to disappear over the horizon at any time. In short, I didn't want to have to give the Sailomat back.
So, how about a powerful below-decks 12-volt autopilot? They're well proven, reliable, and have the benefit of being able to steer the boat without wind, which a wind vane can't do. The price is more or less the same as for vane self-steering. There is no appendage at the stern. For ordinary family sailing electric autopilots are more practical, since a wind vane is best suited for long, steady boards, not home-port maneuvering.
But an autopilot requires battery power, and I would need to increase my house bank beyond the three Group 31 batteries, and probably add solar charging to supplement the alternator. Offshore I keep battery use below about 30 amps a day, and recharge with the diesel in about an hour when necessary. An electric autopilot downwind in heavy weather can require 5 amps per hour for days at a time. I didn't want to stare at the battery monitor and introduce range anxiety to the offshore equation. A wind vane becomes more powerful as the wind increases and uses no electricity at all. And I already have a wheel pilot for motoring and very light winds.
I admired the Sailomat because it bolts onto the transom with three bolts, and can be entirely removed in 20 minutes when not needed. I even did a desultory search for a non-shared Sailomat 800, but few are for sale. Stellan Knoos sold about 30 a year, each built in Sweden. There was always a long wait, and apparently manufacture stopped in 2020. Many other versions of servo-pendulum steering also work fine, each with minor pros and cons. The Monitor from Scanmar is most prevalent in my area, although I am not personally an admirer of the jungle-gym mounting scheme.
The Cape Horn vane is quite different from the Sailomat, which steers the boat with lines direct to the wheel or tiller. Those lines block one or both sides of the cockpit, but have the benefit of being in plain sight for the check against chafe or fouls. The Cape Horn runs the control lines from its own below-decks quadrant to the ship's quadrant, with no lines on deck. The result is a single elegant tube on the stern, not a hulking apparatus.
I admit that the look of the Cape Horn was attractive, given the graceful lines of an Ericson 381 (although an electric autopilot has no "look" at all). The Cape Horn's reputation is good, and one of its advocates is Ericson forum moderator Guy Stevens, who has installed many of them. The device was designed and is sold by Yves Gelinas of Quebec, who famously sailed around the world in the early 1980s. There are abut 1500 Cape Horn units in service today, and Yves still answers his own phone. His price is about $4000 for an Ericson 38, less than many other gears before the cost of installation.
Compared to the three bolts of the Sailomat, mounting the Cape Horn is complicated, and done by a boat mechanic probably expensive. I watched one installed on my dock last year and it took a month, no doubt because certain adaptive parts had to be made. I'll do the installation myself, which seems practical by any of us with the time and inclination. A great help to understanding the job is the step-by-step video log of Sailing Uma. The ordering process requires careful measurements of the boat and discussion with Yves until satisfied the custom design is right. Here are the final measurements of my boat.
In the end, I continue to believe that a powerful below-deck electric autopilot is probably a solution for many. They require reliable electronics, including input from a wind direction indicator. They are a single solution to world cruising and a Saturday afternoon sail. A wind vane, free of electric needs, requires manual adjustment at every tack, and cannot steer the boat when boat speed drops below about 2 knots (because its power to move the rudder comes from the movement of the pendulum blade through the water). But an inexpensive wheel pilot solves that.
Six weeks is the delivery time, if all goes well.
Added: Installation notes
Practical review (video):
Wind vane gears get to be personal. They steer while you sleep, and their mechanism is close to magic in its ability to transfer a slight alteration in wind angle to a major rudder correction, and without so much as a whimper. To the susceptible imagination of a lone sailor they seem loyal as a favorite dog, almost alive, always faithful. To own one also reveals a potential best hidden from others, and maybe from oneself: to disappear over the horizon at any time. In short, I didn't want to have to give the Sailomat back.
So, how about a powerful below-decks 12-volt autopilot? They're well proven, reliable, and have the benefit of being able to steer the boat without wind, which a wind vane can't do. The price is more or less the same as for vane self-steering. There is no appendage at the stern. For ordinary family sailing electric autopilots are more practical, since a wind vane is best suited for long, steady boards, not home-port maneuvering.
But an autopilot requires battery power, and I would need to increase my house bank beyond the three Group 31 batteries, and probably add solar charging to supplement the alternator. Offshore I keep battery use below about 30 amps a day, and recharge with the diesel in about an hour when necessary. An electric autopilot downwind in heavy weather can require 5 amps per hour for days at a time. I didn't want to stare at the battery monitor and introduce range anxiety to the offshore equation. A wind vane becomes more powerful as the wind increases and uses no electricity at all. And I already have a wheel pilot for motoring and very light winds.
I admired the Sailomat because it bolts onto the transom with three bolts, and can be entirely removed in 20 minutes when not needed. I even did a desultory search for a non-shared Sailomat 800, but few are for sale. Stellan Knoos sold about 30 a year, each built in Sweden. There was always a long wait, and apparently manufacture stopped in 2020. Many other versions of servo-pendulum steering also work fine, each with minor pros and cons. The Monitor from Scanmar is most prevalent in my area, although I am not personally an admirer of the jungle-gym mounting scheme.
The Cape Horn vane is quite different from the Sailomat, which steers the boat with lines direct to the wheel or tiller. Those lines block one or both sides of the cockpit, but have the benefit of being in plain sight for the check against chafe or fouls. The Cape Horn runs the control lines from its own below-decks quadrant to the ship's quadrant, with no lines on deck. The result is a single elegant tube on the stern, not a hulking apparatus.
I admit that the look of the Cape Horn was attractive, given the graceful lines of an Ericson 381 (although an electric autopilot has no "look" at all). The Cape Horn's reputation is good, and one of its advocates is Ericson forum moderator Guy Stevens, who has installed many of them. The device was designed and is sold by Yves Gelinas of Quebec, who famously sailed around the world in the early 1980s. There are abut 1500 Cape Horn units in service today, and Yves still answers his own phone. His price is about $4000 for an Ericson 38, less than many other gears before the cost of installation.
Compared to the three bolts of the Sailomat, mounting the Cape Horn is complicated, and done by a boat mechanic probably expensive. I watched one installed on my dock last year and it took a month, no doubt because certain adaptive parts had to be made. I'll do the installation myself, which seems practical by any of us with the time and inclination. A great help to understanding the job is the step-by-step video log of Sailing Uma. The ordering process requires careful measurements of the boat and discussion with Yves until satisfied the custom design is right. Here are the final measurements of my boat.
In the end, I continue to believe that a powerful below-deck electric autopilot is probably a solution for many. They require reliable electronics, including input from a wind direction indicator. They are a single solution to world cruising and a Saturday afternoon sail. A wind vane, free of electric needs, requires manual adjustment at every tack, and cannot steer the boat when boat speed drops below about 2 knots (because its power to move the rudder comes from the movement of the pendulum blade through the water). But an inexpensive wheel pilot solves that.
Six weeks is the delivery time, if all goes well.
Added: Installation notes
E381 - Cape Horn Wind Vane Installation 2021
Links to videos at the end of the post. The "integral" Cape Horn vane connects the servo-pendulum gear by lines to the ship's quadrant by means of its own quadrant installed on the interior transom. Unlike other servo-pendulum systems, all the...
ericsonyachts.org
Practical review (video):