February 17, 2016
Our Monitor windvane: From a rusty hunk of junk, hanging off Legacy’s butt, to shinny, sparkling bling dangling from her derrière. That’s how it’s been transformed. We hadn’t even intended to rebuild it, but it looked so bad after Legacy was waxed that I couldn’t resist.
It turns out that it was a much-needed rebuild. There were broken bolts, a crack in the stainless and other worn out parts.
We removed and disassembled it and Chris from Tig Art welded the crack and polished the stainless. He did a great job. We reassembled it, and in the process, I found I lost one part. Of course, a vital, critical, can’t-do-without-it part.
Enter Marine Diesel Services. They’re the guys who created and installed our rudder bushings two years ago (still working great!) and have helped us with numerous tasks. Malcolm made us a new one, using the un-lost one as a sample. I can’t recommend these guys highly enough!
We had a rebuild kit, mostly intact, from when we bought Legacy 18 years ago. It’s all back together, hopefully working great, ready to steer us in the right direction (we won’t know for sure until we get out in the ocean again). -Rich
What the heck is a windvane?
For those that may not know about windvanes, it’s an ingenious, totally mechanical device with no motors, wires or transistors. When the boat turns slightly sideways to the wind, the wind pushes a board sticking up in the air off to one side (not installed in the picture). A mechanical linkage connected to the board turns a paddle (seen folded up in the picture) such that the water flowing over it pushes it to the side, pulling on a line attached to the steering wheel. Simple and elegant.
I have to admit, we don’t use it much anymore. It’s so much easier to use our hydraulic autopilot as it steers a very straight course with no extra miles covered. The windvane meanders a bit, changing course as the wind changes direction. These days we always seem to be racing a weather system into port and can’t afford the extra miles sailed. (Or maybe that’s just my excuse for being lazy ;-).
I do know that I wouldn’t be without our Monitor. When we lost our alternator (and therefore everything electrical) on the way to Hawaii, it saved us.
