Yachting and Boating World forums: Self steering reliability and fixing underway.

Hi Bumblefish

I did a big feature on the fitting and use of both of those windvanes in PBO, July 2006 pages 65-70.

David Rainsbury had used the Navik for several thousand miles around the UK, and fitted it himself to his Contessa 26. A fair bit of tweaking required for it to fit. He loved using it, but - as the article highlights - it has it short comings, and build quality and spares availability/cost was a main bug-bear.

I watched the Seafeather being fitted to a 34ft wooden sloop, with a raked transom - and the whole thing went very smoothly. I have tried the Seafeather on a junk-rin Kingfisher 22 in a force 3-4, and on this 34-footer in barely a 1-2.

The Sea feather is lovingly custom-built by one-man-band Paul Dolton in Devon, and he makes a real craft of it. It was particularly sensitive on a down-wind run with virtually no breeze over the vane - the point of sailing when most of them lose the plot.

Paul can make the Seafeather to exactly fit your boat, but you'll need to chop the off-the-shelf Navik around. He'll also fit it for you for a couple of hundred extra, which includes his mileage and a test sail to teach you how to get the best from it.

I'm afraid I can't profess to knowing how they work at sea in terms of reliability - I do know that the Seafeather is more robust, and has more built-in safety features ( remote tripping blade, companionway adjustment, variable blades etc) but is more expensive. The Navik is cheaper by several hundred, and very popular, but lacks some refinement.

As for drilling the hull, the job was done with a standard cordless drill, with a wrist band to stop it taking a dive. The whole sequence is in that issue.

If I had the money, I would fit a Seafeather tomorrow. Instead, I'm relying on a QEM bought from a boat jumble for £35. Suspect I may live to regret being a cheapskate...

Cheers

Jake

Post Extras