From: Brandt Faatz
Sent: March 08, 2015
To: Will Curry
Subject: Sea Trials

Hi Will,

We took Priya out yesterday for her first sail with the Hydrovane. The breeze in Puget Sound ranged from 8 to 17 knots. We tested all points of sail. Close reaching in 10 knots was simple, with the vane set at minimum rudder deflection. Priya sails herself in those conditions anyway, so it wasn’t much of a test. Then we tried quartering in 17 knots. The max deflection setting was under powered, but medium deflection performed very well. It was only a one-foot chop, so not a difficult test of surf-induced yaw correction. We later tried beam reaching in 14 knots. Perfect.

We were able to tack under vane control. At low deflection it was very slow, but switching to max deflection made the tacks almost respectable. She’s a nimble boat, but I was surprised how well this worked.

The net result: the Hydrovane performed flawlessly in favorable conditions. It is a solid start, and it was easier than I expected. I enjoy the feedback the vane gives on sail trim. Vane tending to the lee? Ease the main. What could be simpler?

We mostly set the ship’s rudder 2 degrees to the lee, occasionally increasing it to 4 degrees while we fussed with sail trim. We lost a quarter-knot when we centered it.

I’ll let you know when we get into more challenging conditions. Four-foot chop is about as exciting as it gets around here, so the big stuff will have to wait for our summer passage. We should get four meters off the Oregon coast.

Cheers,

Brandt