Will a Bimini interfere with wind vane?

[Matt Cawthorne]

I have a CD 36 with a pendulum self steering device. I am thinking of adding a bimini. I realize that gentlemen don't sail to windward, but it occurred to me that the bimini could have a significant impact on the wind vane while close hauled. Does anyone have experience with this combination?

Matt



mcawthor@bellatlantic.net

[John Vigor]

Matt, I don't think a Bimini will matter to a windvane at all. The apparent wind when you're beating is a little forward of 45 degrees, depending on your boat speed. If you draw a line from your wind vane forward at, say, 35 degrees, you'll notice that the wind mostly misses the Bimini--maybe just clipping the after edge.

But presume for a moment that the wind does impinge on the Bimini before it hits the vane. If the Bimini deflects the wind, it will probably always do so consistently. So all you have to do is set the vane accordingly. The vane doesn't give a darn which direction the wind is coming from--it will steer accurately to wind coming from any direction.

I have sailed many thousands of ocean miles with an Aries, though never with a vane and Bimini combination, and I can't see that there will be any problem.

Cheers,

John Vigor
CD25D "Jabula"



jvigor@qwest.net

[mike]

Matt,

I captain, LaVida a CD33.

I put almost 6,000 nm on my windvane last year and found, overall, on I have to remove my bimini.

Down drafts and other stray air currents from it effect the Monitor wind vane itself causing erratic steering.

Love my Monitor!!

Sea u,
mike



mpr@seascan.com

[Ryan Turner]

I sail my CD33 with a Fleming wind vane and bimini all the time with no problems. Maybe it would work better without the bimini but it works fine with it in place too. I asked the folks at Fleming about it when I first bought the vane and they said just what John Vigor did.



rdtsails@msn.com