Self steering is another of those things that tend to polarize boat folk into various (if not quite foaming at the mouth) groups. While there are many sub-groups, the basic line up boils down to auxiliary rudder and servo pendulum; both of which work finest kind but have different advantages and disadvantages...
For the home builder DIY guy the auxiliary rudder system makes all kinds of sense but surprisingly there is not a lot of information about in the way of how to build one. Part of this could be because the auxiliary rudder is so simple that you hardly need plans to make a successful one or more probable that for those who are real geeks in regards to building self steering systems are attracted more to the more complicated geek fest that is the servo pendulum!
Right now on "So It Goes" we have a DIY clone of the excellent French Atoms servo pendulum gear and while it works just fine, we do plan to replace it with an auxiliary rudder for a couple of reasons. The first being that the auxiliary rudder system is just that and in the event of losing our spade rudder we would be able to use the self steering to steer the boat. While the second is that in our experience the auxiliary rudder system gives more scope for boat balance as you can use your main rudder to fine tune balance and balance is all about where it's at.
For those who might suggest going with an autopilot rather than a self steering gear, I could go into a long extended rant on the subject but to save you the PAIN will just let you ponder the initials NFW...
As I mentioned, there are a great many resources for those embarking on building a servo pendulum gear but for those interested in an auxiliary rudder, not so much, but three excellent ones do come to mind...
- Nick Skeates designer of the Wylo had an article some years back in PBO on building his auxiliary rudder self steering system which is excellent (article can be found in the files section of the Wylo group) which is both easy to build and robust gear.
- Paul Fay a designer (of steel boats as well) has an excellent vane gear as well which is dead simple and should work well on pretty much any boat.
- For anyone deciding to build a self steering gear I'd advise they download the most excellent download by the blog Sarana at Sea ... money well spent!
Between these three articles you will have more than ample information to build a vane gear for a couple of hundred dollars or less, and able to take you anywhere...
How cool is that?
