Mister Vee

[TJBurkett]

When I first learned of the Mister Vee and it's use on a Vega in the
Jester Challenge I contacted Sven at Mr. Vee who put me in touch with
Stan Snape who was kind enough to tell me of his experience with the
Mr. Vee. Two competitors, including Stan, had the connecting rod
(connection between vane and servo-pendulum ) break. Although Stan
did say that prior to the breakage the Mr.Vee performed well steering
in a variety of wind and wave conditions. In the Azores, a
replacement was made and fitted, but Stan was unable to get the the
Mr. Vee to steer the boat on the way home and had to resort to his
tiller autopilot. The Mr. Vee would initially steer but any change in
the wind or roll of the boat caused the boat to drift 25-35 degrees
off course. After consulting with the other users and Sven, Stan
thought that the problem was the connecting rod fabricated in the
Azores which was considerably heavier. Stan said that he rebalanced
the connector (I'm not sure how) and on an initial test sail the unit
worked well-although as he said he would like a full season to see
how it works but he plans on selling his boat in the near future.

I still have the Mr. Vee on my list of possible units. Sven was very
accomidating in putting me in touch with Stan, nor did he try and
hide the problems- traits I really appreciate (and don't often find)
when I'm about to spend a bunch of money. The lightness and atachment
of the Mr. Vee looks apealing as well as the cost. I plan on
contacting Sven to see how he has addressed the original breakage
issue.

Tom

 

[bobnlesafloat]

Hi Tom,

When you get those answers from Mr Vee - I note that there website (very decently) already refers to these problems and discusses incorporating end-stops or similar into the design; would you please either post here or let me know, as I too am considering one of their vanes. As you say, price and more importantly size/weight wise, these look a good option for the Vega.

Bob Carlisle
Spring Fever 1776

 

[wisdomracing]

Very old thread, but I'm attempting to muster wisdom and experience regarding the Mr. Vee wind vane systems. Unfortunately, the internet seems rife with speculative interest, but real experience with the units (particularly ones that benefitted from improvements to the original design which plagued the '08 Jester Challenge Vegas) is few and far between. I'm considering a Mr. Vane equipped with the off-center mast in order to accommodate a center-mounted outboard.Does anyone in this list have such (new) experience (hearsay even?) to share about the Mister Vee systems?Jacob Wisdom#385 "Adamek" out of Long Beach, CA