From: Ian
Sent: February-21-10 9:00 AM
To: John Curry
Subject: Hydrovane Rudder Pin Query

Dear John

We used our Hydrovane last year and, as I reported to you, throughout it was fantastic in ease of operation and reliability. One thing that I didn’t comment when I wrote to you in the summer was that when moving under power in a marina I didn’t notice any difference from normal with the hydrovane rudder installed. Before buying the hydrovane one of my main concerns was manoeuvring under power with the hydrovane rudder in place. As with many older boats ours is not too compliant with the helm in astern!! After a long trip across the English Channel we arrived in Cherbourg late one night in August and had problems finding a berth. With no marina staff to help this meant searching for a berth – it was pretty busy. Through all the ahead and astern in the fairways the boat handled exactly as I would expect – it was only the following morning that I realised that the Hydrovane rudder was on and locked – I hadn’t even thought about its effect at the time and it had no impact on boat handling in either ahead or astern. I couldn’t have asked for anything better! Brilliant.

However at the end of the season when I went to remove the rudder from the shaft the pin was very difficult to get out. When I eventually did get it out there were marks where the rudder had obviously been trying to turn but prevented from doing so by the pin as the shaft was locked – almost like a chattering of the rudder. We kept the rudder free when sailing but when motoring we kept the rudder locked. We had to motor on some day passages so there was quite a lot of motoring with the rudder locked and fixed. My thoughts on this are that if we are entering or leaving a port/anchorage under motor then we should lock the rudder otherwise we should allow the rudder shaft to be free even when motoring for days. Could I please have some advice from you on the best way to manage this?

Editor note: Best to lock the shaft/rudder when motoring. Add a line with a heavy duty bungee in it, tied to a cleat. This will help absorb some of the load and ease chatter.

Thanks
Regards
Ian