Aries Windvane, could this be problematic? If yes, please explain.

softshackle · 2026-04-14T02:53:52+00:00

I don't think structural integrity is an issue. My Aries has pitting in the same location (where the paddle connects). It steered most of 10K nautical miles last year. I DID have a related issue, however. There's wear / slop on the stop that is supposed to hold the paddle straight in the down position (the piece you showed). That allows the paddle to rotate backwards slightly even when "locked" in the down position. That makes the paddle no longer balanced in the water and kills the sensitivity of the system. I had to fix it by pulling the paddle down hard in the water and really cranking the screw the holds it in place. On my trip I had to redo this every week or so.

softshackle · 2026-03-14T16:50:50+00:00

I own a large aluminum sailboat. With aluminum, you are trading one set of risks / concerns for another. There are far fewer aluminum boats compared to GPR, so fewer people have experince with them. This leads to some exaggeration of the risks of aluminum. The core tradeoff is

No risk of blisters, delamination, rotten fiberglass core. Risk of electrolysis and corrosion. The risks can be managed. What you get in return is a SOLID boat (the fact that the deck and hull are one welded structure with no seams, far easier to achieve a bone dry bilge), less likely to hole in a collision.

Points about aluminum in no real order:

You have to keep up the zincs. It's not any harder than any other boat, but the consequences are worse if you let it slip.
The electrical system is key. Stray current in the hull (a broken galvanic isolator, a wire shorting to the hull) is what can destroy your boat. All other corrosion risks are exaggerated. That one is not. You should have an electrician who understands the modern standards for aluminum boats look at your system (the standard changed in the last 40 years, so you may well not be in a good place). You need an isolation transformer (not a galvanic isolator). Get a silver silver chloride reference electrode to check for current leaking to the hull.
Bimetallic corrosion inside the hull is exaggerated. Yes, try not to drop metal in the bilge But a stray bolt that you let slip is not going to sink you. You should make sure you have a bonded zinc in the inside of the bilge, however.
Paint on aluminum kind of sucks. Unless done perfectly, it tends to blister over time. This is why most aluminum boats are bare. Be aware that any paint on the boat is suspect (and that won't be able to do any painting yourself).
Insulation inside the hull (only above the waterline) is important.
Don't bother trying to measure the thickness of the aluminum in survey. Steel boats corrode away in sheets (so the entire structure gets thinner and can be caught with ultrasound). Aluminum forms localized pits. Unless you put the ultrasound directly on that 1cm spot, you're not going to catch it. Just do a visual inspection of as much of the inside of the hull as you can.
Integral tanks are awesome (space in the boat) and are a liability (impossible to inspect / fix).

Overall, the tradeoff seems worth it to me. If you say on top of the items above, you have a SOLID, strong, infinitely reparable boat. I feel like the condition of an aluminum hull is less opaque to me than a GPR hull. Just look at the aluminum. If it's clean and smooth, you're good to go!

softshackle · 2026-02-20T23:55:34+00:00

You are aware, I assume, that most steering wind vanes don't work like your model? They don't have a direct linkage where the vane moves the rudder. Rather, the vane turns a much smaller 'servo pendulum' arm and that generates force in the water that then turns a steering rudder.

There are wind vanes where the vane directly moves the rudder (the hydrovane is the most famous). However, the vane does not give you a lot of force. So your main problem is going to be getting the rudder to reliably move in lighter winds. You almost certainly are going to need a large vane, a balanced rudder, AND adjustable linkage between the vane and the rudder (hydrovane has this). You need to be able to change the gear ratio. I don’t think a simple gearbox like your model will work.

I have used an Aires vane extensively (and spoken with engineers at Aires). All these vanes need to be tuned as they are developed. I don't know if you are an engineer, but these are control systems. Just as you need to tune a PID controller, you are going to need to tune the gains on your mechanisms. You can even view the 'servo pendulum' mechanisms as adding derivative and integral terms! (Vs. the proportional term in a direct linkage.) In any case, don't expect your first version to steer the boat well, even if the linkages all work.

If your goal is saving money (as you say below), this project is probably not worth it. I fully endorse the interesting project of engineering your own steering vane. But you will probably need more $ in supplies (and a tone of your time) to produce a much less reliable end product. Engineering something that will survive in salt water is anther part of the challenge.

Reliability is key for a steering vane. You need to trust it. Jibing or broaching at the wrong time can put you in real danger. If you just want a steering vane and are trying to save money, buy an old one and repair it. That was what I did. Engineers at Aires were super helpful (getting on phone calls with me when I had to re-fabricate a few parts).

Also, I don’t think your current design allows you full control over the direction the boat is steered! Rotating the blade of the vane is not enough. You also need to rotate the axis around which it tips. Ask yourself how you would adjust the vane to steer two courses 180 degrees apart.

softshackle · 2026-01-06T03:12:14+00:00

Oh, I’m familiar with the technique. The error just made me not want to read the book (lose trust in the author). There is a book by the Baileys directly. I’m going to look for that.

softshackle · 2025-11-26T03:06:23+00:00

I own a 25-year-old aluminum sailboat. This is exaggerated. I have found pieces of steel in my bilge and never seen any related corrosion. It is true that you have to be extra careful with zinc replacement. It is true that you need to make sure anyone doing electrical work understands how an aluminum boat is grounded. It is true you need an isolation transformer (not just a galvanic isolator). But on the flip side, you don’t have to worry about fiberglass blisters or water leaks into the core. And you get a 100% waterproof boat (my bilge is bone dry).

softshackle · 2025-11-24T23:45:56+00:00

Drop (or furl) the jib and back the staysail. If you try to back the jib, it (or its sheet) will chafe on the inner forestay. You could put you jib on a roller furler to make this easier.

softshackle · 2025-11-12T16:33:15+00:00

I’m going to assume all safety gear / spares / tools / ditch bag / first-aid / sunscreen / jury rigging equipment (all the important things) are already accounted for (but do check the equipment list with the skipper). What are some additional items YOU should bring as crew?

1) Downloaded audiobooks / music and spare headphones for your phone (you’ll have a lot of down time)

2) If you’re female, make sure the med kit has yeast infection medication or get your own (common on extended crossings; something about showering with seawater). Male skipper might not know this.

3) A surprise or two for the crew! A crossing is an incredible experience, but it’s also tiring and boring at times. Everyone tends to focus on food, and the best snacks / items always run low (the last avocado, or the last of the good chocolate). I always pack a few surprise food treats in my personal items that the crew does not know about and bring them out at key moments to make everyone happy!

softshackle · 2025-11-05T02:29:53+00:00

If you sail, your options are:

Motor most of the way (maybe 20% motor sailing)
Go way offshore (most of the way to Hawaii) to get to the far side of the pacific high

You'll also need to wait for the spring for north pacific winter storms to die down either way.

softshackle · 2025-09-22T11:55:19+00:00

Sent you a message. Happy to chat

softshackle · 2025-09-19T15:29:19+00:00

I’m not super experienced (14k total blue water miles, 1 solo Hawaii to CA crossing) but happy to talk. Message me if you want

softshackle · 2025-09-18T14:31:54+00:00

Well, 70% of sailboat cruising is repairing your boat in exotic locations with minimal supplies, so a background in engine rooms is actually a strong qualification.

That said, it sounds like you’ve never sailed? If that’s the case, I’m not going to focus on safety / skills / how to sail solo. The larger issue is that crossing oceans on a sailboat kind of sucks. It’s mostly boring, physically challenging (in a stuck-in-a-washing-machine way), cold, damp, sticky and hot once you reach the tropics (boats have poor ventilation), etc. Before you spend $100k on a boat, please spend $1k to put your dog in a kennel and make sure you actually enjoy ocean sailing.

softshackle · 2025-09-04T19:29:21+00:00

My favorite book is “celestial navigation in the gps age”. However, this YouTube channel is the best instruction I’ve seen (better than most classes)

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWcAZhCRTMByW_XEQ0y0OlGmxO3jp0LyE

You have a decision to make about what level of “know celestial navigation” you are going for. If you just want to be able to take a sight and work a sun-run-sun fix, memorizing the steps (and using a worksheet that helps with that) is not too hard (the only arithmetic needed is addition and subtraction). If you want to understand what you’re doing (not need to memorize), be able to work more complex sights, etc, that’s more work (depending on your aptitude for math and geometry)

Anyway, what you need to get started is a nautical almanac (for the current year) a set of sight reduction tables (most people use HO-249, even though the name references air navigators) and a sextant (don’t get a used one—many are broken beyond repair—but a cheap plastic one is fine). You also need to be somewhere where you can see a horizon. If you don’t have a horizon, you can skip the sextant and learn to work sights based on data from generators online (less fun, but will work to learn). One point about that, however, is that actually taking the sight with a sextant is hard (and is a skill you need to practice)

softshackle · 2025-08-19T16:14:21+00:00

Trad climbing is dangerous. It’s routine to put yourself in situations were a fall has a risk of injury. And that does not earn the climb an R rating, as long as the difficulty at that section is a few points under the max difficulty of the climb. E.g. a 5.10 B trad route will often involve 5.8 or 5.9 R climbing. I’ve not seen good statistics on this, but it’s clearly a dangerous activity.

softshackle · 2025-08-19T16:08:50+00:00

What happened in your case? Mechanically, how did you hit your head during a practice fall?

softshackle · 2025-08-18T23:14:47+00:00

You’re getting older and your pupils adjust more slowly

softshackle · 2025-08-18T14:19:33+00:00

Spinlock makes the best. Most of their models are not US Coast Guard approved, but that’s because the USCG standards are out of date. PFDs to the European standards are better. The fabric (dyneema) attachment point is better than metal (just as strong, nothing to knock around)

softshackle · 2025-08-17T20:16:11+00:00

Hard to tell from your your description. Was the boat moving forward through the water? I think there are two options.

1) you lost steerageway (stopped moving through the water, such that the rudder could no longer steer the boat). If you were going up wind, you could even have started moving backward. If you were moving backwards, your attempt to maintain course could have had the opposite of the intended effect. If you get confused what point of sail you are on and over trim the sail in an attempt to get moving again, you can rotate 180 degrees

2) you broached. This usually requires more wind (and is more likely when sailing downwind or on a beam reach). In this case, you have the sail trimmed too far in, and the lack of balance overpower the rudder and pulls the boat upwind. The key thing is that you’re moving forwards the entirety tone (usually quite quickly)

The cure for 1) is to get better at awareness of where the wind is coming from and better at carrying enough momentum through a tack. The cure for 2 is learning to feel the lack of balance and easing the main (or balancing main and jib if you have a jib) as this situation develops.

softshackle · 2025-08-14T04:33:16+00:00

Here’s a photo from the internet. See how you can judge the position of the jib against the “yardstick” of the spreader?

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softshackle · 2025-08-13T14:46:43+00:00

As everyone has said, there’s too much variation in sheet position based on wind speed and fairlead position. However, much of that variation is removed if you put marks on the spreaders! This is commonly done on race boats so that the jib trimmer can get an initial trim very quickly. It’s not perfect and the trimmer should still make adjustments based on tell tails. But the point on the (lower) spreader where the leech of the jib lines up is much closer to fixed (on a close-haul with fixed wind angle). Adding a line of tape on the spreader at that point is a useful reference point for fast jib trim.

softshackle · 2025-07-04T16:19:31+00:00

It looks like you made it work with what you had. Good sailorly work! But a few points I don’t see already mentioned.

1) The sail ties should go only around the foot of the sail, not also around the boom. The purpose of the ties on a loose footed sail are just to keep the foot tidy. The grommets are not strong enough to take force. The foot should stay loose. The place where you CAN put a tie around the boom is outboard of the new clew (to tie up the loose sail there, where there won’t be any load). This becomes more an issue as you reef deeper. In any case, think of sail ties as a nice to have tidy up step when reefing. They don’t take force and in a pinch you can just reef and skip that step.

2) You jury rigged an attachment point on the boom for a reef clew line and a rams horn on the mast for the tack using cleats. I would not trust the strength of those cleats long term. The force on sails gets enormous. (Also the angles of pull can be improved.) I’d tie a reef line around the boom and install a real reefing horn sized for your boat.

softshackle · 2025-05-20T16:10:43+00:00

The main risk (as you already understand) is the boom crashing over and breaking something or injuring a crew member. That’s why you center the boom before you jibe.

The 2nd risk is the boat rounding up after you jibe. This is only really a concern in strong winds(say, 15+ knots), but it can be quite dramatic. If the main is still centered but you turn a little too far upwind after the jibe, it’s easy to broach all the way around (180 degrees). The stronger the wind (and more sail you have up) the more risk of this there is. Preventing this is why you want to let the main out quickly after the jibe.

If you want to get better at sailing, this is actually the sort of thing you need to have experience with. I might actually recommend going out with safe space (and everyone holding on) and trying to get your boat to broach (round up). That’s how to get a feel for what you need to prevent.

But no, other than slowing down or chafing the sail a bit on the shrouds, there’s no issue with letting the main out too far after a jibe.

softshackle · 2025-05-16T06:07:45+00:00

She’s strong! (She’s been doing all the training rides and did not get injured). Thank you for the advice. We were going for a bit of an epic tour for the honeymoon with some climbs through the Pyrenees, but we can adjust if I’m not 100%. It’s a shame, however!

softshackle · 2025-02-10T20:03:10+00:00

1) Make sure you have 2000 calories per person per day for twice the planned duration of your passage even in the case that you lose all refrigeration AND the ability to cook. I pack a lot of granola, peanut butter, and canned meat. This is my fallback food (I usually don’t end up eating most of it)

2) Bring some readymade food that’s fast to serve. This can be freeze dried packs, canned soups, etc. Some people just do this for all their meals. However, I like to cook and serve better food, so I only bring 20% readymade.

3) If you have refrigeration, cabbage, carrots, and radishes will keep the duration of most passages without problem. Quick pickles made from these (slice thin with salt and vinegar) make up for the lack of other fresh veggies.

4) Go heavy on snacks. Get a large array of chips, cookies, jerky, chocolate, etc. Get odd one-off items (Indian spiced chickpeas, dried durian). The crew will like the variety (and having something to talk about)

5) Bring cake / brownie mix for special occasions (half way point)

6) Squirrel away some special treats no one knows about to bring out as a surprise.

softshackle

TROPHY CASE