Of course, if you were to believe a lot of the information and hype you will find on the subject of wind-vane self-steering you may come to the conclusion that it does not. Something of a conundrum is it not?
One thing I've noticed in folks who are obsessed with the cutting edge of gear is that after a point it becomes more about smoke and mirrors than it does about utility. In the case of the RVG wind-vane, folks point out several perceived design faults... The fact that it is a vertical vane system which provides less force to a trim tab (trim tabs also being out of fashion) is now considered a less than usable sort of vane gear.
What all these folks seem to forget is that the RVG steered the boat really well and, in some cases, better than our current servo-pendulum gear (an Atoms clone).
One of the advantages of our RVG over the horizontally vaned servo pendulum Atoms was that it set its own course. All we had to do was declutch the system, let the vane weathercock to where it should be for the course we were steering, engage the clutch, and hey presto we were now self-steering. With our current vane you have to manually turn the vane till it is where you want it by pulling a string and getting it just right while steering the boat is sometimes akin to juggling three cats and a chainsaw... Even more fun is when it's dark and you add the de rigueur flashlight clenched in your teeth to the fun and frolic!
But, what about the power issue?
Well, it's sort of a non issue when all is said and done. It takes very little power to move a trim tab and once the tab is moved it's the trim tab that is the source of power. With our RVG we never ever noticed a situation where the power needed to steer the boat was not there when needful on all points of sail. In super light winds, if we had enough wind to sail we had enough wind to make the RVG a happy camper. When we did not have enough wind to sail, steering becomes something of a non issue...
Which sort of brings us around to the question if a vertically vaned trim tab auxiliary rudder system works just fine, why would you want to replace it? Well, in our case our RVG simply died through corrosion as whomever designed it could have been a little more up on the dangers of mixing metals underwater. Though, as it seemed to have a lifetime of nearly twenty years, I'd say it's still a pretty good gear... The Atoms we replaced it with was more about the fact that it was for sale for $200 and I was lazy so bought it instead of building a replacement reasonable facsimile of the RVG (in hindsight something of a mistake as we much prefer the auxiliary rudder sort of gear).
The point really is more about not replacing something that works just fine for something newer, shinier, hipper and expensive that will, when all is said and done, do exactly the same thing as the one you are replacing. This of course is not just about wind-vanes but encompasses next gen anchors, new electronics, or whatever...
... If it works just fine, why replace it?
Listening to Vahevala (easily my favorite boat song)
So it goes...
