I currently have three 1 x 12 planks sitting on the starboard side deck which are slated to become the Islander’s new self-steering gear. While I find the cost of the planks ($37 each) a bit depressing the upside is the entire self-steering gear will only cost somewhere around $300 dollars and a few afternoons of sweat equity.
Beats the hell out of an Auto-Helm ($5250) or Hyrdovane ($7328) from where I sit. Especially that just the shipping for either gear would exceed my $300 budget. I’m pretty sure you can do the math…
For anyone who finds the current cost of self-steering gears appalling B&B Yacht designs has an excellent plan for a DIY windvane that’s well within most anyone’s ability to build. I speak from experience as I bought their plan and it’s well worth the $50 investment.
Oh yeah, while you’re at B&B you might also want to check out their nesting Catspaw dinghies since building your own dinghy is a huge cost saving and nesting dinghies make sense for VolksCruisersth in utility and cost.
Just do the math…