Vane Sailing

Gareth,

thanks for the confirmation on rudder only. I sailed my brother's 575 on rudder only often and had a wonderful time with it. I'm not remotely interested in competition and would never see any others round here to sail with.

It has to be entirely me and the yacht and learning as I go along. But I will not give in to the advice to go with servo winches at £100 a pop, when I could make something with a geared motor-driven leadscrew or similar. As a nominated inventor on a VW patent, I can come up with mechanisms when I need to.

If we ever see the postie again (three days this week, no show) he should have a book on the topic for me which I ordered last week.

Lots to do on the hull first, to get it as smooth as I'd like it to be. Then things like goosenecks, etc.

Cheers,

Martin

In case people wondered what happened to this thread, I should explain that a heart attack on Boxing Day rather got it the way for a while, but only today I got the epoxy on the Marblehead and will have a practice rig up when I've drunk my tea and glued my grand-daughter's shoe! I also ordered a sail winch servo for a reasonable price, which will at least help me earn stuff, although if I find the Braine gear that the yacht came with I'll try Gareth's method of incorporating both it and R/C. My local water is a 25 foot wide canalised river. I can get to both sides via a small bridge, but the edges are reeds.

Cheers,

Martin

No point in starting a new thread. Where can i get information to make vane gear ?

Brian

Brian,

There are several designs available through Sarik Hobbies. Plans reference MAR 2863, MM 398, MM 631 and MM 1115. MAR 2863 shows details of both Braine and vane steering mechanisms with dimensioned drawings. I have not seen the other drawings so I don't know how detailed they are or what type of vane gear mechanism they describe.

Graham Reeves designed the Ezi-build vane gear which is easy to make and works effectively - I know because I made one for a 36R yacht. Full details are available on the Llandudno model yacht club site here:-**LINK**

Used examples of vane gear occasionally appear on Ebay in widely varying condition and at widely varying prices.

Gareth

Hi Gareth and Liz

Kimmo is rather quiet these days?

Any comments?

Bob

Hi Bob,

He's fine. We met up in the Isle of Man for the Manx MBC Manannan festival at the end of June. He is still building model boats and yachts and tinkering with Arduino type stuff.

Gareth

Hi Gareth,

Thank you for the link. Looks pretty straight forwards.

Brian

Having looked at there web page there has not been an update for a while, is the club still operating?

Brian

Brian,

I think the club does still exist but I understand they are having problems with the boating lake on the promenade at West Shore. It tends to get filled up with sand, washed or blown off the adjacent beach and they are having great difficulty getting the local authority to maintain it. Its a great pity as its a lovely location for vane sailing.

Gareth

Gareth,

Some years ago, when the MM398 vane gear was made, I was considering building the MM631 Moving Carriage vane. The advice was to avoid the moving carriage unit unless it was for a larger boat, such as an 'A' Class. The Moving Carriage unit needs a large boat due to it's weight and whether this would apply to one made with modern materials, I don't know. Although I have never seen one of these, I understand it is a superb piece of engineering.

My vane unit, earlier in this thread was silver soldered (access to workshop facilities then), whether this is overkill for normal lake sailing again, I just don't know. There could be a strength issue, but at the time I had the occasional trip to Fleetwood or Fairhaven which were sea water and the advice was to use silver solder. Had a discussion with Malcolm Frary who had a model with a soft soldered rudder which he has sailed in sea water lakes for many years without any problems.

In the thread, Vic Smeeds Model Boat Designs, #23 shows two small designs for half sized Marblehead models, Sea Urchin and Waterbaby. These plans show a small vane gear which would be suitable for smaller yachts.