From: Larry Read
Sent:  April 18, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Test day 8

Hello John

Nelda and I left PV 8 days ago and the Hydrovane has performed very well. We have been in a variety of conditions, fortunately none severe, and have been using the HV for all our steering. We have been plagued by large swells that are coming down from the North from the storms you and California arehaving. It is a struggle for the HV to handle some of these conditions. The only condition it couldn’t handle so far was winds 15, DDW, mixed swell 2.5 meters on the stern, sailing wing on wind 6 to 7 Kts. The vane just didn’t like it and we didn’t like it either. It was horrible as we were thrown one way and then the other by big competing swells. The HV just couldn’t keep up with the huge swings in the direction of the boat. I solved the problem by turning on the auto pilot and using both of them at the same time. After a while I turned off the HV and the auto pilot did far worse at keeping us on course than the HV did. Neither could do it alone but they could together.

We had a boat on the PPJ (Pacific Puddle Jump – Mexico to Marquesas) lose its auto helm steering three night ago. They do not have any alternative but to steer by hand. They are 1000 miles out with 1600 miles to go and as I say the conditions are challenging.

That’s it for the middle of the Pacific,

Best wishes Larry

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From: Larry Read
Sent: April 27, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Day 18

Hello John

It is good to hear from you. It sounds like Will and Sarah are putting you to work. We are in love with Valerie our Hydrovane. On Monday of this week we encountered our most difficult conditions. We had a section of the ITCZ develop literally on top of us. A friend is tracking the ITCZ from Ca. by satellite photos and wrote, “I hope you are not right here” and guess where we were. We could see three different wall clouds all at the same time!

To make it more fun we had our drifter foul and had to deal with this mess with it up. We saw peak gusts to 38kts for a very brief time. No we did not use the HV to steer through this. Nelda made me go stand in the rain and hand steer.

But speaking of hand steering we haven’t done much thanks to the HV. Yesterday is a good example, we had a very light 8 to 10kt wind all day and through the night including today. We set the HV with our drifter up, it did survive, and didn’t touch the HV or the wheel for over 36 hours. We do keep a 24 hour watch but it’s certainly not to monitor our steering. During this time we had winds as low as 4 kts apparent from the beam and a boat speed of 1.5Kts and the Vane worked great. We usually shut it off because the sails are slating due to the swells, not because it can’t keep a course.

I have been trying to make mental notes on what I am learning about how the HV works as relates to the instruction manual. The manual talks a lot about balancing the boat, and this is the number one factor in our success. But with that said, we rarely have to change the set of the sails to balance the boat. Our procedure is to set the sails and turn on the auto pilot to steer our desired course, then we set the HV to fly back and forth on this course.

We turn off the auto pilot, lock the helm and balance the boat steering to the HV. Just as it says in the manual, if the HV is always trying to push the boat to starboard turn the boat steering to starboard. Once the HV trails straight back, the two are happy together and we lock the wheel and the boat is balanced for a wide range of sailing.

Well that’s it from here. I am glad to hear you talked to Ned and Carol. I know they are very happy with the performance of their HV.
Best wishes
Larry

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From: Larry Read
Sent: May 13, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject:

Hello John

Nelda and I arrived in the Marquesas the day before yesterday. A 29 day passage. The Hydrovane exceeded all our expectations! In over 600 hours of use it did not loose our course a single time! We even used it while motoring in a storm to assist our struggling auto-pilot. You can’t ask for more than that.

Best wishes
Larry

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