Have more than 10,000 ocean miles on both coasts and SoPac steered by a self steering vane. Have had only two issues. One was caused by my failure to properly tighten a mounting bolt. The other was a bearing issue that didn't disable the vane but made it sluggish. It still steered at the end of a 3,000 mile passage, just not as well. Cured that problem with a pen knife. Have paid less than $2,000 for both vanes on the used market. The Aires on my first boat sailed the boat to SoPac and back with us and twice down south with the next owner. The third owner used the boat for tourist tours and sold the vane. For all I know, the vane is still out there doing its thing. The last one had steered a 30,000# boat through the Carribean, Panama Canal and up to San Francisco. I mounted it on my boat in a couple of hours and it steered me all the way to Hawaii and is still steering the boat. Pretty damn reliable outfits all without any significant maintenance or care. If you are making serious passages cannot see why anyone would do it without a functioning self steering vane IF it can be fitted. Possibly the most important reason for a vane over an autopilot is a vane works better and better as wind increases which is just the opposite for an auto pilot.

People seem to think wind vane self steerers are as expensive as a good auto pilot. Have no fear of leaving on a long ocean passage without a back up for my self steering. Would not leave shore without a complete second auto pilot. That makes an auto pilot twice as expensive for passage making. Then the other problem, auto pilots are hungry bastards. The generating capacity to refill the batteries isn't cheap and/or it's a lot of engine hours that totally ruin the joy of sailing.

Others say they are only good for open ocean sailing. My self steering vane steers the boat if it is sailing, whether it's just a daysail or a 2,000 mile open ocean passage. A self steering vane is not a set and forget device as the boats heading will vary with the relative wind. Still, it's way less effort than actually steering the boat and part of normal watch keeping. The set and forget functionality of an auto pilot gives the users a false sense of security that has killed people and beached boats from inattention.

Self steering doesn't work on all boats. Some will just have to live with the expense and vagary of the electrons. For me, I buy the vane then the boat and sell the boat if the vane can't be made to work.