Wednesday 8 May 2013

Max Mariner (Also known as Mad Max)


Max has been invaluable on our trip across the Bight. He is an Aries wind vane. His previous owner gave him to Peter’s brother Clive, who then passed him on to us for our trip. Clive had the paddle and coupling rebuilt and Peter made some new vanes and renewed the ropes and tiller connections. A robust aluminium frame was commissioned for attaching Max to the stern of Rene. After much tweaking and tuning we have got him working well. It took Peter many trials to work out the vagaries of a wind vane self-steering system, but is now confident that he has mastered the settings. Max is a great helmsman as he makes little noise and uses no power from the battery. He tends to wander a bit, occasionally decides to disobey and take off on his own tangent (hence Mad Max) but generally does a good job. Max loves upwind work, especially in a good breeze.
 

Harry Helmsman

Harry is our Raymarine ST 4000+ electronic auto-helm. He is much more accurate than Max, but of course uses battery power. We use Harry when inshore and more precise movements are required or the wind is so light that Max does not work properly. These three pieces of equipment are an essential part of our trip so we decided to give them names.
 

Crossing the Bight has been uneventful thanks to Peter for the preparation, me able crew member and Rene our very seaworthy yacht. Our motto comes from a small plaque on Rene’s    which says, ‘Grab a chance and you won’t be sorry for a might have been.’ I’m glad we have grabbed our chance.

 

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