Installing the Monitor Wind Vane

July 27, 2013

Wow, so much to catch up on.   Part of an adventure is doing things that you have never done before.   A Monitor Wind Vane is a device that mounts to the back of a sailboat that can help the boat steer with no one touching the tiller.   On my cruise from Honolulu to San Francisco, I would say that the Monitor, on the boat I sailed on, sailed well over 2,000 miles with very little attention given to it.   It uses no electricity and many have sailed around the world with this device helping them.

Well, when I opened the box for the Monitor, I knew right then that I needed help.   With no hesitation, I called my friend Gary and he cleared his calendar for a day at the marina.   This was a fun project, but not without some challenges.   One funny thing is that we opened the box and began spreading out all of the parts on a tarp behind Spirit of Adventure.   We started putting pieces together and soon two other boat owners came by and began giving advice on how to install the Monitor.    Even Gary and I could not agree on how to do the install.   We laughed as the other boat owners finally left and we got out the directions.

How could this thing possibly fit?

Gary was great and soon we began to study the directions and piece together the parts.  Drilling the stainless steel was really a time consuming part of the whole operation.   Slow drill with lots of pressure.   After quite a few hours, we finally completed the installation.   What a beauty!  THANKS GARY!

Monitor Wind Vane installed

PS- As a side note, the Monitor worked beautifully on our shake down cruise (next post) and relieved us from the tiller for hours at a time.   After the boat, this is one of the best purchases I have made.