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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