From: Peter Moffitt
Sent: December 20, 2016
To: Will Curry
Subject: XT vane

Hi Will

We have just returned from a 3,500 NM cruise from Sydney to Lizard Island in Far North Queensland (about 280 NM south of Cape York) and return to Sydney. This is our first cruise with our new Hydrovane and during its course I have fallen deeply in love with our Hydrovane ! It has steered us in ALL conditions, even the most demanding, and is beautifully SILENT !

You would be interested to know that I cut 90mm off the top of the XT vane to allow it to clear the obstruction by the corner of a solar panel on the radar arch (in its un-extended form). I removed this 90mm height from both the tubular frame and the nylon cover. You wouldn’t know the difference in the photo I previously sent you, and I have found that it works fine un-extended despite the slight shortening.

However I have one issue with the XT vane – no matter how tightly I screw the knob on the bottom of the movable part of the vane frame to hold it in an extended position, when it is fully tightened it still doesn’t grip to hold it extended. It was OK in the beginning but over time it has lost its grip. I’ve tried lubricating the thread with silicone grease to make sure that the thread tightens right up, but it still doesn’t quite grip. Do you have a fix for this please ?

[Editor’s note: First thought was the ‘olive’ went missing. Wasn’t that… Turned out to be that the olive was installed correctly, but where the olive bears against the male threaded part attached to the bottom of the aluminium tube, the aluminium tube was recessed slightly from the plastic male thread element. Added a coupling ]

Cheers from Peter

Peter Moffitt
Yacht PIXIE
Sydney, Australia

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