When we decided to add windvane steering coupled with a hydrogenerator to our sailboat, our focus was on the practical aspects: conserving battery power, adding rudder redundancy, and enhancing our off-grid capabilities. It wasn’t until we sailed with the vane overnight for the first time that we came to appreciate the transcendent thrill the devices also deliver. When the wind is both powering and steering the boat, a satisfying synergy of motion is achieved.
Steering in the before times had always been a fight where constant correction was required to maintain course, and the electric autopilot was always on the back foot trying to catch up. The windvane, in contrast, is a peacemaker that provides equilibrium using pure physics, freeing the boat to go where we need her to go as if she knows the way on her own. I never considered steering a fight, until all of a sudden it wasn’t. The vane represents a transformational change, and we fly the red vane sail as a badge of honor marking our sailboat’s arrival into a higher state of being.
Attaining balance with the sea is
