Trouble With the Cape Horn Windvane

[John Stone]

With the adjustments made the boat steered well. Pretty much ghosting conditions. We hoisted the big jib withe it's zip-on bonnet and a full main. Mostly we made about 2 kts but hit a whopping 3 knots for a while. Actually, I love that kind of sailing. Water burbling along the hull and a light breeze over the deck.

So I am declaring victory. I did decide to purchase a second servo blade. It comes with a SS head attachment so it's a complete replacement if anything happens to my primary blade. Probably a good thing to have considering my potential voyaging plans.

The boat is nearly fully loaded. The horizon beckons...

Good job, John! Sailing in light conditions is usually the hardest thing for self-steering gear to do, so it sounds like you have it fixed.

I have been wondering if you could de-couple the servo paddle from the wind vane for testing to see if the paddle tries to steer itself one way or another with no external wind input. Maybe it would just be as simple as removing the wind paddle from the top of the gear and holding the wind paddle counterweights in place with a line or bungee so waves/heeling/rolling don't cause input. If you could measure how much deflection force you get from a zero-input servo paddle at a particular boat speed (for example using a fishing scale), you could tell if the force from the mis-shaped paddle changes in the future as water soaks into the newly exposed wood grain and re-bends the paddle.

Or you could just go sailing and not worry about it.

Does this mean your cruise is a go?

Smooth sailing,

Jim

Yes. We are making final preparations. The FR is provisioned for six months minus perishables. All my tools and spares and other voyaging equipment are aboard. Filled the water tanks. Topped off kerosene. Bent on sails to include the trys'l. We are finishing a list of small projects. Repositioning the boat mid week to Beaufort NC to wait for wx window. So barring anything unforeseen we are on track.

We tested the vane every way we could think off. With the airblade off and holding the yoke vertical the servo blade tracked straight. It was subtle because it worked fine when the wind was blowing. Just in light air when the servo blade would seem to wander off to starboard and there was not enough wind to overcome it. So my conclusion had been the air blade was sticking and not responding to the wind change when in fact it was in the servo. I'm chagrined it took me so long to figure it out.

I ordered a second blade that comes complete with the SS head bracket. My wife will ship it to me in the USVI.

I coated my servo blade with teak oil to protect it. Not the best choice. I never thought about using cetol till Yves mentioned it. And by then it was too late. So we will see how true and straight it remains this season.

MTF.

[Jim Walsh]

Looking forward to progress reports when you find the time. This is when all the projects (large and small) you completed will have a chance to prove their value. Soon enough you’ll be in that cobalt blue water…..

[wikakaru]

Glad to hear that your cruising plans are on track, John!

I coated my servo blade with teak oil to protect it. Not the best choice. I never thought about using cetol till Yves mentioned it. And by then it was too late.

The manufacturer's web site for Cetol says it is not intended for use below the waterline. I'd think epoxy would be a better choice when you decide to re-coat.

Fair winds,

Jim

[John Stone]

Thanks Jim W. Hope to run across Steve L down Island.

Jim Wikakaru--I know. AwlGrip is the same. When I had blisters on my new Awlgrip after our first voyage to the West Indies in 2015-16 I called in a claim with Awl Grip. When I got home they sent two techs to see the boat. They looked it over very closely. Blisters in the paint from the waterline to about a foot up all the way around the boat. They like snd prodded and used their monocles to look closely at the blisters. They walked off a bit and talked in hushed tones. They walked back and said "you did everything right. We don't know why it blistered. Sometimes it does that. But remember awl grip is not supposed to be submerged." And I said it's top side paint in a sail boat. How ya gonna keep the tops in a heeling sailboat from being submerged? One of the tech reps got real close and looked me dead in the eyes ans said quietly, "Awlgrip is not designed to get submerged in water, blink blink." He essentially was telling me it's all BS and that's the company's position.

But they said they would cover everything but the labor. They shipped me gratis a pallet of awl grip, primers, wash downs, wax remover, slow and fast evaporators, lint free wiping rags, tape, and a couple gallons of bottom paint. They could not have been nicer about it.

So I don't know what to say about the cetol. It's what Yves said they use. It can be stripped with a heat gun.

I'm not in general a fan of epoxy applied to all sides of wood. I think it caused more trouble than it's worth. I'm not suggesting it's not appropriate for certain applications like stitch and glue etc. maybe it would be fine. Probably but would be fine. A composite blade is the right answer. But they don't offer that anymore and I just don't have time to make one.

I'm not going to worry about this. The big thing for me is I got it figured out. I now know what to look for. I stripped the vane down to its guts and I was impressed with the quality and simplicity.

I sure wasted a lot of time figuring out the problem though when it should have been the first thing I checked. But I am smarter for it.

Anyway, thanks to all. Sincerely appreciate the time folks took to read the posts and make comments and suggestions. Sometimes it's just the butterfly effect that that solves the puzzle and sets up the way forward.