Hi Tor,
God willin' an' the crick doan' rise, next summer, next fall at the latest. I've decided to putter and explore the ICW before hopping off to the Bahamas. Then, who knows? Other islands, other Caribbean places? Or to Bermuda and then England?
Long and short of it is that I have a Monitor and I'll have to live with it. It's a bit like whose God is better. Or, if you're offended by that, then whose dad is smarter.
Both vanes have survived a whole crapload of miles of sailing. One nice thing I've found with my Monitor without having to use it at all is that it's a handy way to get out of the water at the stern.
In any engineering problem, they're bound to be many usable solutions -these are two. I've also used Plastimo wind pilots – it works especially well with tillers (which I wish I had, by the way).
For Alan, who asked about upwind sailing with the mizzen, I've found it's optional but does help balance the boat and in really light wind is pretty effective. As the wind increases, however, the first sail I drop is the main. I don't know if it's because of the staysail or not, but jib and jigger is a really comfortable sail combination. (Add the staysail and it's also fast).
But I digress. I suspect that any good quality windvane steering system that's well made and meets your needs will be perfect. And I'll defend to the death your right to have one of those other ones… 🙂
Bob
On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 6:59 PM, Silver Heels < ([email][/email])> wrote:
Everything you say makes sense, as usual. (Far be it from me to argue, or even debate, with an engineer!) Anyway, there is no absolute right or wrong here.
By all accounts the Cape Horn seems to be the hands-down winner off the wind in light air. Even Hans is likely to give it that. It's also a smart, esthetically pleasing machine with an excellent track record. It will allow me to use the davits that came with my boat, my mizzen boom won't hit the vane, and I'll spend a thousand bucks less buying it than I would for a new Monitor. Beyond that, I'll have to get back to you in a year or two with some personal experiences to report. Meanwhile, there are a bunch of impressive testimonials at capehorn.com to encourage me.
This stuff is not real important. What is is that we might get to raft up in some really exotic place one of these days and raise a toast or two to… whatever comes to mind. When are you planning to set sail?
Tor
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Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.SilverHeels.us
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