Talked to a cruiser back from 4 years in the south pacific on an
Oceanis 43 with a Cape Horn windvane. He reports the vane worked well
with a couple of exceptions.
1) The tube transversing the transom is not watertight and following
seas do push water thru it.
2) His unit started sticking where the rod passes thru the plastic
bushing. After several emails with Cape Horn, they finally admitted that
the plastic they used had a tendency to absorb water and swell up to 15%.
The fix was to disassemble and bore out the bushing using the proper
sized drill.
Cape Horn told him the were "thinking" of going to delrin or something
else.
His unit is 5 years old and he didn't know if they have since upgraded.
The only other problem he encountered was a failed block. He reported
no abraded control lines.
BTW, his unit was installed by a Cape Horn rep.
Gordon