The worthy Hebridean
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ส.ค. 2017
- Two years on from building a Hebridean self steering system, I talk about the latest modifications, and show how well the system is working in practice.
Blog post: tammynorie.wordpress.com/2017...
The Hebridean: windvaneselfsteering.co.uk/
This is not a paid or sponsored video. It is my personal opinion and recommendation. - กีฬา
Really glad you and Tammy are back out on the water again, I see you've not lost any of the skill of making a concise and informative video. Good effort on the vane.
Nice job, they are mesmerising to watch day after day
Really enjoyed that video as I've just started looking at the Hebridean
Thanks for making this video. it's really helpful.
Are you building one? Also, could we somehow be related? www.brooksby.org/
Thank you for the ideas.
Nice and very informative.
Love inventions.....exciting stuff.
Well done.
Nice job
I love the little copilot atthe top of that (what's-it's-name) stainless steel rod!
He was actually a toy pen top that I bought from the Lifeboat shop. Sadly, I left him outdoors last winter and he was eaten by birds!
Thank you for sharing the performance of your elegantly-designed self steering. I am encouraged to try make one too, i.e. through a trail-and-error style. I think the process will be rewarding. Is your boat a catboat?
Thanks Joseph. I think designing one is a very interesting challenge. Now that I've had experience with the Hebridean I could likely do it. There's a Facebook group on the subject that you might like to join facebook.com/groups/145491262806631/ .
Tammy Norie is not a catboat, but something a bit similar: she's a junk rigged Newbridge Coromandel corribee.org/history/coromandel/ . There is a lot more information about her on my blog at tammynorie.wordpress.com/
Hi Richard, I have read through your blog posts about building your Hebridean and the trials and tribulations you were initially having with it, and the thoughts that it may be to do with the pendulum being warped or in some way out of shape. I take it from having watched this video that by adding the shock cord to apply some tension to the top of the pendulum, that has calmed all of the wandering about? (Noting that you are back to using the original pendulum as opposed to the one you made out of plywood). I'm very interested in building one of these interesting devices for my own boat in order to do away with the power demands of my tiller pilot...
Steven Paul Yes. The bungee turns out to be important, providing an adjustable centering force. The plans marked it as "optional" but it was not in my case. Tuning and getting used to any self-steering takes time, people say, so expect some trials of your own, but I'm very happy with mine, and have gained great satisfaction from building and maintaining it myself. If you'd rather just buy, take a look at the Pacific Windpilot Light, as used by Roger Taylor.
@@TammyNorieThank you. Its convinced me to try a build very much influenced by this design and build. Fairwinds and good health.
@@EdSurridge I'd be very interesed in what you do. Feel free to post here or drop me a reply on the blog post about it tammynorie.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/the-worthy-hebridean/
@@EdSurridge You might also want to check out the Homemade Self Steering group on Facebook facebook.com/groups/145491262806631/
@@TammyNorie just as a footnote, 2 years on... I built a Hebridean during the winter of 2018 and used it in the 2019 season on my LM27, using it while cruising the west coast of Scotland, then to Ireland and the Isle of Man. I couldn't fault it. I had no tinkering to other than sort out routing for blocks and lines.
Very Heath Robinson…perfect! Great work.
I see you have left the hardwood unfinished. I do wonder if in the long term it would last longer if sealed. You can see darkening of the timber around the bolt holes..not a good sign?
When I was taking it to test-fit on the train, someone asked me what it was. I explained, but they said "if you'd told me it was modern art sculpture I would've believed you".
The darkening is caused by me dropping the whole thing into the mud in Fareham, where it stayed until the next low tide. The mud is rather like paint and got into the wood grain, especially on the edges and corners. I decided to leave it. After years of exposure to the sun, sea, and winter (it stays aboard) the wood has barely changed.
@@TammyNorie what timber did you use?
Of course if it is removed when not in use, it won’t be an issue.
@@markthomasson5077 It's American white oak, as recommended by the plans. I've used this for other fittings since then. I lift the Hebridean when I'm not aboard, but it lives on deck in the sun and weather all year, without noticeable decay. I occasionally rub it down and give it a coat of garden furniture oil, but I don't think it really cares.
Maybe you can make the bungee neater and easier to adjust with a small jam cleat?
Also, how does it perform in choppy weather downwind? Really you don't need wind steering at all upwind - though it can help - so I think downwind would be a better test.
Yes a small cleat or similar will get added sometime.
So far the Hebridean has done pretty well in choppy downwind conditions. For example I used it to cross the shallow Waddensee in F7 winds, which created quite steep seas. It also did extremely well on my downwind North Sea crossing, as you can see towards the end of my earlier video "Trials of the Hebridean".
Tammy Norie, being a sloop, can certainly be balanced up wind with a bungee on the tiller, by balancing weather helm against the sail. I think you'll have an easier time achieving balance with your schooner though.
Having looked at drawings of this steering device and discussing with a friend who is a very competent with his hands and having made a hebridean from a kit, I decided it was a little too complicated to build.
Trying to find a more simple device at cheap cost for my Junk rig.
Current use sheet to helm steering
The make-or-buy decision is the key one, and it all depends on your personal priorities. I want something I can make and maintain myself, but my second choice was a Pacific Windpilot Lite so you might like to take a look at it. windpilot.com/n/wind/en/prod/lite/
@@TammyNorie thank you for the advice but the pacific i can only dream of in my dreams!
Hi, now we see the vane under motor conditions, this device is made for steering a boat under sail.
Hi there. I'm afraid I don't understand your comment. In case this helps: all of the examples in the video are under sail. My experience has been that the vane does not work at all well with the motor running on my boat, even in strong wind, because the prop turbulence affects the pendulum. But my engine is an outboard in a well and really only used for maneouvres.
Sorry Tammy, I got confused by another video.
@@mbu745 No worries. I hope you find what you're looking for.
Hi.
Thats useful video.
I recover a hurricanedamage Rival 31 and she have old British Aries. Im not sure how long will work, no matter that I appart it for complete cleaning and lubricating, it is coroded. Repair some places with epoxy, but start to think to build a good downwind selfsteering, as my Gregoria keep the rest of courses with bungy.
Do you know where I can find some info how to build it?
The Hebridean plans and kits are available from the designer here windvaneselfsteering.co.uk/
Hi nice job do you happen to have the drawings, please
The drawings are available from John Fleming at windvaneselfsteering.co.uk/
In my opinion the counterweight on the actuator arm helps to the movement of the pendulum towards one side but resists, on the other hand , to the movement of the pendulum towards the other side. Therefore the design is probably wrong. On the sea, the pendulum will move one side more than the other side. This is the reason why pendulum shifts only one side. Bungee neutralizes this effect.
Hello there. I'm curious about where you are seeing the asymmetry. When the boat is on course, the vane and the upper counterweight are vertical (with respect to gravity) and the vane can be pushed either way equally. The upper counterweight is set to balance the vane. The lower counterweight is set to balance the rod and the lower mechanism, so there is no net force up or down and it does not favour or resist either direction. Can you explain where you are seeing a problem? Is there a particular time in the video that shows it? Thanks!
@@TammyNorie Necessity for a bungee is due to the unstability of the system. Actually the bungee works as a third counterweight which stabilizes pendulum. Normally without bungee the pendulum is at unstable equilibrium. This problem may be solved by using the second(lower) counterweight in vertical direction at rotation axis of arm.
@@obarut54 That might not work quite as you expect, because the bungee isn't affected by either the heeling angle or the rotation of the gear or wave action -- it's always towards zero. You can't necessarily use gravity to provide feedback towards zero. The Hebridean design only uses counterweights to make the vane and linkage mechanisms neutral to gravity.
@@TammyNorie I will try on my version. th-cam.com/video/L9598BQdxx4/w-d-xo.html
@@obarut54 I'll be very interested! When I'm back on the water I'll also try adjusting my weights. It's always a pain though, to try these things out in enough different conditions to see if they work out. I see you have the remote control! I have one but have not fitted it yet.
Hi. Thanks for interesting videos. Where did you get your aluminium mast from? I'm working on a junk rig conversion but cannot find a suitable mast.
Hello! Tammy Norie is not a conversion. She was always junk rigged, and the mast came with her. It was made by Proctor, who no longer exist. I have actually been trying to answer the same question. I contacted Selden, who took over Proctor, but they have been very unhelpful. I'm wondering about building masts from wood/fibreglass composites using a birdsmouth technique.
Too many moving parts which will all fail.
Hello! This is not my experience.
1. The Hebridean has fewer (and simpler) moving parts than many other wind vanes because the geometry means no gears are needed to get negative feedback in the system. There are seven parts: the pendulum, the spine, three parts in the linkage, the sail, and the mount.
2. My Hebridean has been used for many months every year, and left out in the weather and sea, beaten up, dropped in a river and retrieved, and is still working perfectly. There is a blog entry with the only required maintenance since 2015 (9 years now!) at tammynorie.wordpress.com/2019/08/21/maintaining-the-hebridean/
I hope this is helpful if you're considering building.