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Self Steering without a Vane

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
For the record, here is a link to the book

"Self-Steering for Sailing Craft" by John S Letcher jr

The approach is 1960s era, before the domination of vane steering by servo-pendulum gears.

But it remains the only full discussion, as far as I'm aware, of the tricks and physics of making a boat go in a straight line by sail control alone, and the ideas and observations in it are still valid.

https://jesterchallenge.files.wordp...-sailing-craft-by-john-s-letcher-jr-small.pdf
 

Roger Janeway

Member II
Not only that, but Letcher's writing is beautiful. Thank you for posting this. Whether I have the self-discipline to follow his discussions of sailing dynamics is doubtful, but I appreciate his explanation of why my boat can mostly hold her course on a close reach in moderate wind with the tiller free, but no other direction works, whether the tiller is free or lashed. (pp. 18-30).

Of Murphy’s Law, he comments that it is “a succinct statement of healthy pessimism. It is an attitude worthy of cultivation by anyone who goes to sea, for it encourages foresight and preparedness, and softens disappointment. It is especially applicable to windvane self-steering . . .” (p.82)


His thoughts on patents (p.87) are lovely.
 
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