SV Sila – Christopher Barnes US

LIVE ABOARD FAMILY ON A BOREAL 47

Hi Peter
we are from Colorado US and live on our boat.

FYI (not a complaint): over 25,000nm we have sailed about 4/5ths of the time and of that probably 50% was using the WindPilot. So over about 10,000nm: we have just worn out our second set of control lines, did break a Barton pulley, switched to some Harken pulleys with ball bearings which is probably not needed but they are quieter, the plastic T handel on the wheel friction drum released from the bolt inside (re-glued and okay so far), and the double nuts (part153) would slip over time and I replaced one of them with a nylon locking nut and it hasn’t moved since. No major problems. When it isn’t steering well it is always sail trimming that  solves  to the problem. 

Biggest benefit for us is no power as we have a low draw boat with wind and solar but no generator and do not run the engine to charge – so the WindPilot means that we can sail for a long time (just sailed 7,500nm from South Georgia to Ireland via Ascension, Cape Verdes, and the Azores) without running the engine to charge batteries.

Thanks for making such a great product.

Cheers – Christopher WEITERLESEN

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