Testimonials & Literature
1. Articles
2.
Travel logs and web sites of sailing
yachts equipped with a Holland Windvane/Bouvaan
3. Testimonials
Articles about the Holland
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Tony Gooch |
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Palstek, 2 / 2008 |
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Mijn Boot, 07/2007 |
Articles about windvane
steering systems:
|
Cruising World, 4 febr. 2002 |
|
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Cruising World, 5 dec. 2001 |
Travel logs and web sites of sailing yachts with a Holland
|
“Ragaine II” (Reinke Taranga) from Lithuania |
|
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“Happy Monster” (Najad 360) |
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“Fenneken” (Marieholm IF) |
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“Pulsatilla” ( |
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“Gladisant” (Albin Vega) |
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"Schorpioen” (Alan Buchanan one off) |
Testimonials:
* Lancelot (Kaskelot) Bram
en Hanny van de Loosdrecht (NL)
“We have been sailing with our
Holland Windvane for many years on the North Sea up to the Shetlands, the
The construction is very strong, but
yet the system functions very sensitive. We regard the construction made of
commercially available materials of big importance to us. Our next boat will
also be equipped with a Holland Windvane, that is for sure.” (2004)
* Octavus (Arcona 40).
With this racer-cruiser with water ballast
* Happy Monster (Najad
360) Hans
Domselaar and Dory Janssen (NL)
“With the
* Ragaine II (Reinke
Taranga)
“Hello Mr.Hanco
I,am very glad, that I have
* Albacora (Deltavogel, Steel long
keel
The Albacora has been equipped with a Holland Windvane
since 1995 and made long trips from Brittany (
* Mad (Hurley 830),
Since 10 years I have been sailing -often alone- with
my sail yacht on the Baltic Sea between
I have built the small Bouvaan exclusively with the
construction drawings, since there was not a building manual in German in those
days. Since last year I have an excellent new handbook.
Within 14 days I manufactured and assembled the
Holland Windvane in a garage on a small work bench with a vice and a
column-type drilling machine without any problems. Somewhat problematic I felt
a counterbalancing. But also this could be solved with the translated procedures
of Hanco.
I
am very content with the quality of the materials (kit), and would I not like
not to miss the Holland Windvane.” (2007)
* Gambler (New Gambler 35)
The Gambler has
logged many miles, among others a double handed round trip from the
* Shirley (Westerly Storm 33) Roger Elebaut, Nieuwpoort (
…"we have only done a few test runs on days with
light winds, but I am very impressed. The Windvane responds very well to wind
shifts. We also ran a test with the autopilot coupled to the windvane and it
performed very well. I am very satisfied.” (2003)
* Zilvermeeuw
(Jeanneau Aquila) Mr. Maaskant, Lemmer
(NL)
“I have bought my
Holland Windvane from a friend. “She” is twelve years old and never failed or
had any problems, breakdowns nor wear. How she does her job?: amazingly, indefatigable
no matter how hard it blows. With strong winds she also performs better than my
autopilot. Even on my previous boat, a Victoire 26 that broached frequently,
the Holland Windvane did a perfect job.
If I had to choose
between the engine and the Holland Windvane, I would gladly sail without
engine…” (2002)
* Fenneken (Marieholm IF)
With his Marieholm
IF Hans has sailed to the Canary Islands, Madeira and the
„Because of my own
experience and those of others with different Windvane selfsteering systems, the
Holland Windvane stays number one for me. I have deep respect for the design.“
(2001)
* Xara (X 95) (NL)
“We bought one of the first ones second hand, it is
really a delight sailing with the Holland Windvane.“ (2002, Caribbean)
* Pulsatilla (
„Since 1990 our Holland Windvane takes care for us,
holding our hand free and our feet warm. “Japie”, like our windvane is called,
is our pilot, a reliable extra crew member. (website: http://bsimons.net/) (2004)
* Dombo (Ovni 32),
”From the first moment on, our Holland Windvane has performed immaculately, we
are very satisfied with it“. (2006,
* Goose (Amphirite 43),
“We
are very satisfied with the Holland Windvane. We have been travelling for 5
months now and we have crossed the Biscay twice in rough conditions (40 knots
of wind and waves of approximately
*
Johannes van Dijk:
A
few years ago we delivered a Maxi 999 from
*
Noud van den Braak (Jeanneau Melody):
“……I would not know what to do
without the
Willem van lunteren
(Hartley 39):
“The Holland Windvane is a fine piece
of engineering, very user friendly and reliable!!!”
Building reports:
Doug Stewart
Windalay II, Endurance 35 Cutter, (
Building
the Holland Windvane was about what I expected in terms of difficulty and time
required. What was unexpected was the difference between working with wood,
which I have done quite a bit of, and working with metal, which I had never
done. At first I found it a bit daunting and wondered if I would be able to
finish this project after all. But, as with most things, it all gets easier as
you develop a few techniques, and I ended by feeling quite confident as I
approached each new section. The most difficult thing for me at first was
grinding/polishing in order to get one tube to fit well inside another. I’m
sure that with an expensive machine designed for the purpose that this would be
simple. Like most DIYers, I work with what I can afford, which in this case was
a drill and a Dremel tool, and variously shaped grinding bits. After a while I
realized that polishing out the inside of one tube and polishing down the
outside of the other was just time consuming – keep at it and you get there.
I was
impressed with the quality of the pre-built parts – they all fit where they are
supposed to, and there were adequate quantities of raw stock for the parts that
need fabricating.. It requires a lot of looking at drawings to understand which
part goes where, however there probably isn’t a better way to write these
instructions, and it does all make sense eventually.
I decided
to save up all the welding until the end, but I did take a couple of parts to
my chosen welder early on to show him what I was doing and he did have a few
bits of advice regarding fabrication, so I would advise anyone else to do the
same.
The end
result is a good looking device that seems to have almost no friction, and I’m
looking forward to mounting and testing it.
April 15th, 2007
Frank van Koten and
Han Niemeijer
Feniks, Aluminium ‘Brise de Mer
The fact
that a Holland Windvane costs a third of a Monitor or Fleming is not our main
reason for our choice. During our long voyages we were able to compare
different brands and came to the conclusion that the Holland Windvane some
advantages has that were important to us.
On January
the 14th of 2007 after a demonstration in Hanco’s Holland Windvane workshop, we
were convinced of the technical system and confident in ourselves to build a
large Bouvaan.
Satisfied
of our purchase we returned home with the handbook and a crate full of pipes
and parts. We stuck to our schedule and built the Windvane in three weeks. The
fourth week the Holland Windvane had been mounted on the stern of our Brise de
Mer and we were ready for sea trials.
We were
encourage to build the construction exact to the building instructions, which
we found very apprehensible and included many extra building tips for us.
Because of the lay out in different models we kept always a good overall
picture of the process.
We had
several questions that were answered by E-mail swiftly.
In the
second week things developed very fast, the frame, vane unit, course mechanism
and the pendulum part were functioning well according the test procedures. Not
bad since we are no do-it-yourself diehards. Myself, Frank, have a career in
classical music and Han earns his money in the IT branch.
After
building the functional units, we put them together by electric spot welding. (comment
We were
able to customize the mounts on our stern because of the use of standard
measurement pipes.
With 3-4
Beaufort winds sailed on the
We like
very much that sensible parts of the Holland Windvane are protected by the
pivoting frame that minimizes the effects of a collision with floating or
underwater objects. In case of damage every parts can be bought in the shop or
reproduced by hand with a special set of building drawings.
We like the
styling and the modest size of the Holland Windvane. The ball bearings transfer
the light forces of the wind to the powerful drive of the pendulum with
virtually no friction. The Fleming and Aries system have a more direct
transmission with gear wheels but the exposed gear is more vulnerable and has a
lot more friction.
In
retrospect we consider building the Holland Windvane an interesting and
satisfactory experience. It was instructive and a “crew bonding process”,
though it took a little more time as we anticipated.
In
September we plan to sail for two months to the Azores or to
Hilversum, Netherlands, 30. May 2007
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