From: Bill & Tracy Hudson
Sent:  July 11, 2013
To: John Curry
Subject: Broken pin.

Well, we’re now in the Philippines after another downwind trip from Palau. Our Hydrovane is still the best piece of equipment on board. OK, so we did have a problem. During our trip to Palau, we snapped the pin that holds our rudder to the shaft. I guess, two weeks of 30-35 knot winds and 20 foot plus seas during the trip from Tuvalu were too much and it finally snapped. Can’t say I blame it. Luckily, we’d ready your instruction manual that the rudder would sink if it came loose, we’d not only tied it to the boat but we also whipped the end of the line back on itself so there was no chance of it coming loose. I grabbed one of the spare pins that you sent us and climbed down the ladder and with a bit of luck, got the rudder back on the shaft as Zephyr was rolling in the swells and put in the new pin. Simple and easy and off we went again. OK, so I was wearing a life jacket and did have a safety tether to the boat but hey, I’m not stupid. Sure am glad you sent us the pins.

Now we know that our Hydrovane is built tough but it took the strain that the boat couldn’t. With the wind and seas we had, it slowly started tearing itself off the stern of the boat. Over the years, water had gotten inside the stern fiberglass and had slowly rotted out what would the builders had installed there. With all the pressure, it started moving back and forth in the bolt holes. BUT, he still kept on doing his job. While in Pohnpei, we had the stern torn up and new fiberglass installed. He’s now on rock solid.

One question–on the body of the Hydrovane is the adjustment knob to set it up in position 1, 2 or 3. Where that knob goes through and into the frame, there is a space between the bolt and where it bolts on to the spring unit and the main body. Is there supposed to be that space? I can tighten it up but it sure appears to be tight. Second question, there appears to be a bit of looseness between the top (wind vane) and the rudder. I can grip the wind vane and it will move a bit even when both of the pins to lock up the unit are in place. Does this mean that the fittings are coming loose or again, is it supposed to be that way? We just want to make sure he keeps doing what he has been doing so well for the last 4 years and 16,000 miles (at least).

Just keep making them the way our is and you can never go wrong. I take every chance I can to tell people about it and how good it is.

Bill Hudson

SV Zephyr.

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