tophatyachts.com

Gday thought there might be some interest in the windvane we added recently. Quick video showing it off.. so much fun..

https://vimeo.com/204490658

Cheers
Shea

Awesome!

Looked like a nice day for sailing.

What type of windvane is it and was it hard to install?

troppo

It's a Windpilot Pacific Light

The installation is just 4 bolts onto the stern.. if i hadn't had to remove the diesel tank first it would have taken all of 5 mins.

here's a youtube installation with some german discotheque https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_gnt9mc980

mine took a bit longer installing it while on the mooring + standing in the dinghy

Hey Shea.Nice looking windvane.I also picked up a fairly cheap Aries windvane a couple of years ago.I recently had the boat out of the water and decided to fit it up.I haven't had the chance to play around with it much yet.But the short sail I had around the top of the Bay with it had me grinning from ear to ear.I think a vane on a Top Hat opens up a whole lot of options in regard to sailing further with less effort.It really is like having another set of hands on the boat.
Cheers.Dave

Hey Shea.Do you know what the weight of your model Windpilot is?

wow that thing looks badass!!!!

pretty sure the windpilot is 23kg

Hey Shea.Shoot me your mob no. as I had a catastrophic failure of my Samsung S4.I have a new phone but zero contacts.We are sailing from Sat evening till thurs morning.Give us a yell if your planning to sail.Cheers.Dave 0408 354 683

So, I am getting interested in vanes. I have Autohelm ST2000 at present, which is OK for course steering, but would consider a vane for wind steering on longer legs.
Fleming seem to have a good world-wide reputation but very expensive. Wind pilot seem cheaper, and simpler to fit. Are they easy to import? What are the relevant merits?

I'm not trusting my st2000 in swell with a bit of chop especially from the back quarter, when sailing at a good pace, the stern can get pushed around running down the swells & the st2000 has to work hard, I usually end up hand steering. So becoming interested in windvanes & particularly the Windpilot Pacific Light. As it seems to be the smallest & simplest windvane I've seen.
Shea, do you think the Pacific Light would still fit on the transom, next to an outboard(outboard is offset to the port side quite a bit)?
cheers

hey guys, yep i reckon it would fit on the transom no probs



heres a photo while i was working out how to attach it that shows the horizontal dimensions



the guy that sells them peter at windpilot was really helpful, he put a lower price on the shipping invoice so i didn't have to pay import tax or whatever (i think if it's over 900 bucks you have to), i can't remember what price it was but a couple of grand i think

The windpilot was recommended to me and it's been great. Simple to install

cheers