Windvane Self Steering

Due to me sailing Casulen II single-handed next year, I will need some sort of self-steering. It is my intention to install a tillerpilot, but, as explained in the solar panels section, I have slight reservations about power consumption. A wind vane was never going to be in the budget, and as I also needed a project for my GCSE technology course, I decided to attempt to design and make a self-steering windvane.

There is loads of information available on the Internet if you are prepared to try and make sense of all the advice being offered.

I am currently making two windvanes at the moment, one at school and the other at home. My total budget is £100.

I am now only making one as my teachers have agreed that once they have seen the finished product I no longer need to leave it in school which has considerably reduced my workload.

Two reasons for this, one Casulen`s planned relaunch date now only leaves me with 3 weekends left if I take out the Polar Bear Norway trip and secondly as this is my GCSE tech project it really needs finishing by Easter. I now only have the steering oar to make and the blocks to mount on Casulen II and then sea trials to see if it actually works!

Since these pictures were taken I have painted all the woodwork with grey epoxy, (left over from the anti-osmosis treatment carried out on the hull last year) to ensure it is totally watertight. More info soon!