From Hydrovane installed – Sailing Ayla (syayla.se):

“Our Hydrovane had been at home in our living room all spring. So now it was time to install it. We did have good contact with Hydrovane in Canada who quickly answered our questions prior to installation. There is also a very detailed installation guide and many good videos that shows and explain the installation.

We put many hours in preparation for the installation. Lots of reading and measuring on the boat. A lot of new terms to translate to Swedish to get the whole picture.

 With the help by Thomas (Roberth’s father), we mounted the rudder in a few hours.

 The most difficult thing was the lower `E` bracket that had fixed angels, so we had to work with the timber pad for along time to get it right. It’s important that the pads follow both the contour of the hull and that all angels is 100% correct. The mounting must be totally rigid.

 Now we were excited to see what our new crew member could do for us, so after midsummer we had perfect conditions to try it out. There was an offshore wind and we left Fjällbacka, Sweden, and went out a bit and set course down towards Smögen, we had good winds pending 20-30 knots, we sailed on a broad to beam reach and activated the rudder and after some adjustments it kept Ayla on course, consuming zero electricity.

 We have previously written about why we have chosen to have this solution and we look forward to many nautical miles and crossings that our windvane will steer us across  oceans towards new continents and countries. According to tradition, you usually have a name on the rudder as it is an extra crew member who do the hard work and steers the boat.

 The question is just what should we name ours?”