Re produced from Stelda George & I by Peter Woolass

Having once decided, if possible, to go the following year, my very first thought was to get moving on some form of self-steering gear. The idea of sailing 5000 miles or so alone without it was intolerable. I had already studied the publication of the Amateur Yacht Research Society on this subject, together with what information was available on the Hasler gear. At the time the Hasler was possibly the leading design and offered two basic types—the tab type and the pendulum servo. As Stelda's rudder is hung on the transom I decided to concentrate on the much simpler, and to my mind much stronger, tab type where a wind vane is connected directly to an auxiliary rudder or tab on the trailing edge of the main rudder.

Enquiries of Laurent Giles & Partners, who had some experience of fitting their Vertues with self-steering devices,

revealed that to fit Stelda with a standard Hasler gear would involve major modifications. These would include removal of the bumkin and backstay and fitting twin backstays, and also the shortening of the boom and mainsail foot. As the gear itself was quite expensive, I could see that this operation would cost several hundred pounds and at the end of it Stelda would no longer he a true Vertue. I determined to avoid the latter if possible, and with pencil and paper sat down to try to design a gear, which would incur the very minimum of modification to the boat herself. Eventually I came up with the solution illustrated on pages 36 and 37 which apart from minor alterations to the trailing edge of the main rudder, only involved drilling one fresh hole in Stelda---.everything else was either clamped on or used existing fastenings. As will be seen from the illustrations the gear is basically very simple consisting of a stout beam clamped on to the bumkin and braced to the transom, upon which is mounted a tripod for the upper vane-shaft bearing. The wind-vane shaft, when shipped, is pinned to a gearwheel running on a standard ball thrust bottom bearing. Above this gear-wheel is a rotating arm with a gravity latch gear operated by a piece of cord, the arm being connected to the tab tiller by more cord running round two pulleys. As the gear-wheel (filched from an old machine-tool gearbox and zinc plated) has 72 teeth this gives 5° course alteration per tooth. The end of the tab tiller is exactly above the centre line of the main rudder pintles. (This is very important.)

The basic idea of self-steering by wind vane, like most brilliant notions, is eminently simple. For those readers who are unfamiliar with it, a brief glance at the illustration of its mode of operation on page 38 will I think make it quite clear. First the boat is put on course (i) and sails are trimmed with the wind vane disconnected from the tab. The latch is then dropped and the vane locked to the tab Tiller. Now, if the boat wanders off from her pre-determined angle in relation to the wind (a), the wind vane turns the tab tiller and the movement of the water past the tab due to the boat’s forward progress turns the main rudder in the opposite direction and brings the boat back on to course (j). A wind vane will not steer a compass course—all it will do is keep the boat at a fairly constant angle to the wind. If the wind changes 45°,the course of the boat will also change 45°.

Having evolved my gear (and what you see is the final result of many alterations and modifications) I then set about making it. The beam is of 3 in. x 1.5 in. ash and the braces and tripod of half in. diameter stainless steel tube secured by ¼ in. bolts. The vane steering-arm is ¾ in, marine ply sandwiched between two in. tufnol plates with a vertical latch of 1/4 in. stainless steel plate filed up to fit the gear-wheel teeth. The lines from this arm to the tab tiller are pre-stretched terylene running round standard plastic outboard motor steering pulleys mounted on beech blocks. The tab tiller is of 1/8 in. stainless steel plate clamped on to a 3/4 in. diameter stainless rod, which carries the tab itself on three pairs of welded straps bolted through the tab, which is of 3/4 in. marine ply 5 in. wide. The tab shaft has three tufnol bearings strapped to the main rudder blade and stock, the bottom one being drilled blind.

The design of the wind vane itself was about the fourth attempt. The main object was to use every available inch between the vane shaft and the backstay and so get the maximum power. The vane is of 1/4 in. marine ply clamped on to a 1 in. by in. wall stainless steel tube, and is counter-balanced by a lead weight on a folding arm. No self-steering gear looks pretty. The Stelda type just described has a distinct Emmett flavour, but it works, and that's the main thing. At first I was very disappointed with its performance, and despaired of it ever carrying me over several thousand miles. Like most things, it takes a little time, patience and practice to get the hang of it, and the first essential is to trim your sails properly for the course being steered. You just cannot expect a vane to deal successfully with, for instance, massive weather helm. This must be reduced either by putting up a larger foresail or by reefing the main—in any event a well designed boat is never sailing at her best if the weather helm is excessive. I soon found with Stelda that little finesse was required to self-steer satisfactorily on or off the wind. The tricky point of sailing was reaching, with the wind on the beam. Here, I discovered that the best course of action, after trimming sail carefully, was to let her bear off a point or so, lock in the vane, and then bring her up on to course again. In this way one can induce some wind-pressure on the vane to counteract the slight weather-helm, which most boats carry when reaching. Some people successfully employ shock-cord on the main tiller to overcome this difficulty, but I never had any really good results with Stelda using this method— when the vane is in control she insists on her tiller swinging free whatever the conditions or point of sailing. The few times I tried it she sulked until the shock-cord was removed, and when a lady sulks what can one do but give in?

Other detail points of the gear will be noted—a stainless steel strip enclosing the tab tiller and restricting its movement to 30° either side of neutral together with a ¼ in. pin for locking the tiller in the central position. The latter saves the tab being swilled from side to side when becalmed or at anchor, and it is also useful when reversing on the motor. It is desirable to safeguard the wind vane from sudden gusts when locked in, and to achieve this it is clamped around the vane shaft rather than through-bolting it. With this feature the vane can, in extremis, move around the shaft instead of straining the gear or carrying something away. It will also be seen that, to remove the vane and shaft complete, all that needs to be done is to lift the whole thing out of the top shaft bearing. (This is delightfully simple in calm water, but to do it single-handed in a seaway is not so easy!)

Those readers who carry on past this point will find many endearing comments about the self-steering gear, which has proved extremely reliable and entirely trouble free. When finished I christened him "Stainless Stephen" after the Yorkshire comedian, but somehow he eventually became "George", and George he has remained.

This caused some confusion at times, as by custom and practice my crew and I have always referred to the loo as George. So now "George" refers to the self—steerer and the other is termed "Georges l’avant". Continued confusion was unthinkable with one George so exposed and the other so private. Visually, anyway.