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To roll it back a 'bit ', when fitting Aleria out for crossing oceans, we went to the boat shows and interviewed all the current manufacturers. We had already put a windvane at the very top of our list.
The net result was that our Bowmann 57 a 57 ' cutter rigged ketch weighing in at about 29 tonnes, was simply too big and heavy for most of the systems. Only Scanmar instilled confidence in us with the Monitor. They were the only manufacturer that had a boat of our size on their books. This is what we purchased, and I did the entire installation myself.
We have since sailed many tens of thousands of miles with the Monitor doing all the steering. It does, of course need frequent adjusting as the winds shift - all these systems sail to the apparent wind.
Bear in mind, that even with your sail plan perfectly balanced, which we have learned to do, the steering forces are immense - particularly in a choppy, confused sea. Daria mentioned a tube that broke - it is meant to break if the forces become too great. We broke several, and we now carry 3-4 spares at all times.
We have learned, that when the forces are too much, near coastal and Biscay come to mind, we revert to manual steering or we engage the electronic autohelm, which has very different functionality.
Scanmar also offers an emergency rudder, which can be attached to the monitor frame. We have this, but have never used it, as we were able to repair our steering while underway each time it failed.
I no longer have my interview notes, but if memory serves me, Hydrovane is an excellent product for smaller boats, one I would recommend looking at.
Fair Winds
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