freehand wind vane

BCC Forum
1

rod,

do you know which windvane steered s/v polaris jack? i am in need of steering help. i spoke with mike andersen and he shared this with me about another falmouth 26 owners’ boat, “I have more info regarding the Falmouth 26 and the Freehand.
While discussing and seeing photos of Matthew’s’ boat it didn’t appear to have have enough room to accommodate the upper unit at present. Pardey’ s were here a couple of weeks ago and view his side aft profile. Larry agreed that there wasn’t enough room to fit the upper unit”

so that being said, i was intrigued when i saw what i thought might be a freehand windvane steering polaris jack.

any info you would be able to share would be appreciated.

best regards,

2

i meant to attach photo to the post.

DSC01065 Polaris Jack SLMF.jpg

3

The late A.O. Halsey, built his own windvane steering system. It was modeled after the Pardey Freehand Van.

I built a backstay windvane but skimped on the U-joint connection to the trim tap. The system worked but the plastic U-joint flexed too much. This reduced the input from the windvane to the trim tab.

The reason we purchased a commercial system, is because the trim tab (locked or unlocked) produced weather helm and made the helm heavy.

4

thanks rod.