MACTRA Marine Equipment - Aries Windvane Steering Gears
Bad Weather Problem
On old Aries and many vane gears of today there is the possibility that in very bad sea conditions it is possible for the vane to 'leap' out of the water and of course steering is lost. We let Peter Matthiesen the manufacturer to explain……
"When I took over the production of the Aries vane gear, I had a talk with Nick Franklin about his earlier models. The model to the right was produced for about 1 ½ years. Nick told me the story how he got many nice replies from customers but also the odd ones that had had very bad experiences where the Aries suddenly had lost control of the boat in bad weather. In harbour quite a few of the gears had damages done by bumping against poles or heavy lines getting caught on the gear.
The damages in harbour was quite simple, the construction was not perfect. Imagine that you hold a shaft in one hand, the shaft pointing aft. If something touches the shaft, you have little chance to hold it. If you hold it in one hand and with the other you hold the end sticking out, you are much stronger if something touches your shaft.
The
bad weather problem was a mystery for a long time. Mr. Franklin had no
idea what went wrong. Then one day the weather was very bad. Mr. Franklin
sailed out into the Solent in his boat to see what happened. He tried
all different courses and finally it happened: The mad movements of the
boat + the waves pushed the servo rudder out of the water. Of course this
would happen. It was simple law of physics! Servo rudder pushed up by
waves in bad weather.
Nick
Franklin was very "safe at sea" minded. Many vane gear builders
of today are not. Many vane gear builders take higher priority in modern
design, weight and "not in use" friendliness.
To overcome these to problems described in the previous page Nick Franklin designed his new vane gear, the one that later proved itself to be so good, strong and efficient that he never again managed to make any major improvements. This is the model that we still produce today; Aries Standard:
The shaft is supported in both ends which makes the construction strong against harbour manoeuvres too close to poles and other things (like going reverse into a concrete jetty). The travel of the servo rudder is limited by the two "A" tubes as we call them which prevents the vane gear to loose control of the boat in bad weather. I asked Nick Franklin why many vane gear builders still made the type of gear he discarded many years ago: "They know the problem", he replied, "but they don't care about a 5% negative response of their product." So if you want to be safe in any conditions at sea, you must choose a vane gear, which have taken care of the "bad weather problem". What is the value of a lightweight gear, easy to stove when entering harbour if you get problems in bad weather.
Fair winds, sailor, I hope your make a sensible choice
that you will not regret one stormy dark night out there,"
Peter Matthiesen, Aries, Denmark
Please note all prices shown on this site do not include VAT at 17.5%
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Contact us:
MACTRA MARINE
Unit 20, Worle Industrial Centre, Worle, Weston-Super-Mare, North Somerset,
England BS22 6BX
Tel: +44 (0) 1934 517288 Fax: +44 (0) 1934 520684 E-mail: info@mactrashop.co.uk
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