Finally, after long last, got a Monitor self-steering vane installed!
Bought it unused from a bloke who used to work for Scanmar and has installed literally hundreds of these over the years.
He’s commensurately knowledgeable about the steering vanes, and had these genius tips to share.
- For the steering lines that terminate at the end of the pendulum, rather than a standard stopper knot, stopper it with a bowline, keeping a little loop in the end. The loop enables use of a boathook if the stopper needs to be adjusted while underway (due to chafing, etc.). Otherwise getting hold of it while underway will be substantially more difficult.
- Rather than deal with trucker hitches to connect the steering wheel to the vane, simply adjust the lines at the steering wheel to the appropriate length so that when the blocks are snap-shackled onto their mounts the steering line ends up at the correct tension.
