Hello All - I bought Surprise in March and have been getting her shipshape and adding a few things. I have had several windvanes over the years and wouldn’t leave without one. To make them work well, it is important to dial in the right amount of helm and then engage the gear at just the right time when the vane and servo rudder are more or less vertical. That is often difficult when using a wheel but is easier with a tiller. I didn’t like the tiller attachment that comes
with the Monitor so I designed another one and had a friend weld it up. Since there seems to be a problem with picture attachments at the site, I have posted a picture of the attachment in the Photos section. One of the SS plates is threaded to make screwing the plates together easier. I have acorn nuts for each of the 4 threaded screws but they are not on in the pic. I put some leather between the plates and the tiller to protect the varnish. The attachment can be placed anywhere along the tiller for optimum performance. If you need to dial in some helm or tighten the lines if they stretch, no problem, just adjust the lines in the cams. I also have lines (the ones in the pic) tied to the stanchions for the boom crutch and I run those thru the tiller attachment to either secure the tiller at anchor or in the slip, and I often use them to “self steer” for short periods by securing the tiller amidships or dialing in a little helm if necessary. This device makes it very easy to engage/disengage the vane gear and to make any adjustments that might be needed in various conditions.
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