I will note a couple of things that should be of interest to Junkies and will send you an  email Asmat about how I use the Inreach and costs etc.  I know this thread is the wrong place but it is of general interest that Inreach offers the most economical  instant communication and EPIRB-like emergency safety anywhere on earth. With two water proof text phones on board it is also an economical  man overboard rescue system. The position of the phone heads every sent text automatically. I pay for the scheme with unlimited texts and send hundreds - but use my ipad connected by bluetooth for absolute ease! Sailing can be a chat-fest!

I have, for an additional US$80 per year , unlimited text weather forecasts.  They are received a few minutes after I make a request and are situational for six hour intervals for next three days. My weather fax requires I am awake and can concentrate on starting and finishing off saving the broadcast - a pain and not always possible.  Inreach forecasting is much simpler but no synoptic chart.   The forecast can interpolate  the course and distance covered so should tell one what the boat is heading into.  If I put a position into the request then the forecast is for that position.  I love the functionality and a few friends are getting forwarded  free forecasts in mid ocean! More and more cruisers use Inreach (cheapest) Garmin or Yellow Brick.  I am communicating with someone in a few minutes who is mid Pacific! That person is a Swedish single hander who has sailed in company with his friend  the same model boat.  Sharing watches every few days to allows decent sleeps. VHF range and AIS help with contact but once that means of contact is lost then shared watches are gone forever.  Inreach overcomes that and make this shared watch keeping practical for single handers. I am yet to try this out but I have a friend who is pairing up with me from the Canaries. It may be as revolutionary to my sailing as the Junk rig has proven to be! 

I built him a Hebridean - there! - is thread back on track?

Paul Thompson wrote:That is correct David. The drive line to the worm is an endless line that is lightly tensioned by a block attached to a piece of shock cord. That enables the slight variations in length (as the gear moves through its arc) to be taken care of. It's mainly to ensure that the line never becomes slack enough to jump off the sheave that turns the worm. As far as holding the vane in position is concerned, the line of cause is not needed as the worm will only drive one way.

I notice that you seem to be using an ordinary sheave on the worm. If the endless line tends to slip, you might like to try the form of jamming sheave I designed for the Hasler gears. It consists of two discs with angled flats on them, fastened together such that they form a kind of zigzag groove. Sketch here.

Chris,

I have had that steering problem happen – what a shock when it does! I've experienced it in two different boats, one junk rig, one a small nontraditional catboat (Peep Hen microcruiser) with a gaff rig. Particular situations of light wind opposing some current seem to bring this about. The boat that I converted to junk rig never did this with the original rig, which had much less sail area. But the new junk mainsail is enormous for the boat, and in those specific situations – generally on a river, with the current going one way, and the very light breeze coming up the river in the opposite direction, with occasional eddies, the boat would completely get its own idea about where it was going to go. The solution that has worked best has been, counterintuitively, to decrease the sail area. This seems silly in such light wind – four panels, instead of the full six – but it works. With reduced sail area, the boat once again steers normally.

In the little gaff rigged boat I'm still trying to figure it out, and will have more of an opportunity this year, after the boat being out of the water for several years. In just the right conditions, that boat decides to go perpendicular to the wind and the opposing current, and heads straight for the riverbank. I have blamed this problem on the rudder, and then the problem was exacerbated by crew going forward to fend off, and being such a small boat the rudder was then lifted. But I'm assuming this would not be your problem!

Either way, what an unpleasant feeling, turning the rudder with no effect… I see that Asmat has also offered a sail-setting adjustment, so hoping that one or another approach works for you!

Shemaya

David Tyler wrote:

 In increasing order of adding yaw damping with a vane gear:

1. Horizontal axis vane direct to tiller - no yaw damping at all.
2. Trim tab on the main rudder - not very effective, but can be OK on a heavy, long keeled boat.
3. Fixed main rudder with an auxiliary rudder - better, and good enough for many modern boats, as demonstrated by the Hydrovane.
4. Servo pendulum with horizontal power axis - better still. Common examples are Aries, Monitor, Fleming.
5. Servo pendulum with inclined power axis - the only commercial examples I know of are the Windpilot and the Voyager. Tystie's gear has the power axis at 30 degrees to horizontal, and can be driven quite hard downwind. Fantail's gear has the power axis at 45 degrees, but it can be difficult to devise a linkage for that angle. The Hebridean's power axis is at about 45 degrees.
6. Servo "gate" with vertical power axis (actually, 4, 5 and 6 form a continuum) - best of all but really too much yaw damping for most boats; the arc of servo movement is quite small, as well. 

 

Bonjour

This classification is interesting.

I don't know where I could include the French Navik (as popular as the Hasler in UK). The main feature is a free (around it's vertical axis) vane that is oriented by a servo  tab - aeronautical term. (The command acts only on the tab). The yaw dumping is produced by the feedback, on the trim tab orientation, of the longitudinal orientation of the vane and of the lateral movement of vane.

Eric

Thanks, Paul. So leading the worm lines down to a point near the Hebridean's mounting block works fine. I think that Mr. Fleming should add a worm and wormwheel to his kit of parts to address this, the only failing in what has been the only major advance in self-steering for many years. I'd add the Hebridean into category 5. below; it provides superior yaw damping without the rapid decrease in power as the pendulum swings that has hitherto been a problem with a large angle of inclination of the power axis. 

 In increasing order of adding yaw damping with a vane gear:

1. Horizontal axis vane direct to tiller - no yaw damping at all.
2. Trim tab on the main rudder - not very effective, but can be OK on a heavy, long keeled boat.
3. Fixed main rudder with an auxiliary rudder - better, and good enough for many modern boats, as demonstrated by the Hydrovane.
4. Servo pendulum with horizontal power axis - better still. Common examples are Aries, Monitor, Fleming.
5. Servo pendulum with inclined power axis - the only commercial examples I know of are the Windpilot and the Voyager. Tystie's gear has the power axis at 30 degrees to horizontal, and can be driven quite hard downwind. Fantail's gear has the power axis at 45 degrees, but it can be difficult to devise a linkage for that angle. The Hebridean's power axis is at about 45 degrees.
6. Servo "gate" with vertical power axis (actually, 4, 5 and 6 form a continuum) - best of all but really too much yaw damping for most boats; the arc of servo movement is quite small, as well.