From: Michael Carder
Sent: May 24, 2016
To: will AT hydrovane.com
Subject: watt and sea generator

Hi Will,

We really like our Hydrovane. Installation was done on the hard. The instructions were clear and comprehensive – I think I might have called you once. We had it steering the boat within ten minutes. It’s finest hour was a 24 hour run across the Gulf of Maine in 20 plus knots of wind on the starboard quarter, with gusts to 35, and confused 6 foot seas. We are thoroughly pleased with it.

We are interested in a watt and sea water generator. Like the sound of the cruising version, mounted on the hydrovane shaft. Please send a quote.

Our boat has its rudder attached to the keel so we slid over the crab pots we didn’t see when we were in Maine last year. But the ones with the double floats snagged the hydrovane rudder a couple of times. Could I round off the leading edge of the hydrovane rudder?

[Editor’s note: Yes, no problem on rounding off the bottom of the rudder – you can use an angle grinder or something similar.  If you take off too much the vane might get over powered by the rudder so just do what is needed to make the corner round.]  

I have an old style belt driven autopilot which worked just fine going round Vancouver island on a previous boat. It was however 26′ long and was a lot lighter than the Princess. I plan to try it this summer. If it doesn’t work we will get a tiller pilot and hook it up to the hydrovane tiller. What size would you recommend?

[Adding a tillerpilot is a great solution because it takes very little power to turn the Hydrovane semi balanced rudder. We’ve used Raymarine ST1000 – It doesn’t need to be a large pilot]

Regards, Michael Carder

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