From: Yvonne Kelly
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 4:18 AM
To: John Curry
Subject: Prout Snowgoose 37

Hello John,

Further to your recent mail, I am sending you 7 separate photos showing your VXA2 mounted on my Prout Snowgoose Elite catamaran. The stainless steel support frame was made by a local fabricator to guidance drawings supplied by Derek Daniels and incorporates our stern boarding ladder. It is mounted on the centre line and the shaft length was calculated by Derek to ensure that the depth of the rudder did not extend beyond our skegs and the top of the vane did not clash with the end of our boom.

I am very impressed with its performance and providing our sails are balanced so that the boat is not overpressed, the Hydrovane works very well. Our hydraulic wheel steering allows us to “feel” the load on the helm and yet also allows us to set the helm at midships and engage the Hydrovane without the need to lash the wheel. As you would expect, the Hydrovane does struggle when running in light winds and I am thinking about connecting a small rod-type autopilot to the hydrovane for use in those conditions. We also have a Furuno Navpilot but I much prefer to use the Hydrovane whenever I can.

Following my comments about our unexpected grounding last season, I have checked the shaft below the bottom bearing and, as far as I can tell, it is running true. I also checked the shaft diameter (28.6mm) and the diameter of the hole in the top of the rudder (29.2mm) and they seem about right, although I still have about 20 mm of fore and aft movement measured at the bottom of the rudder – what are the acceptable limits for this measurement?

Finally, as I mentioned in my previous e-mail, I would like to improve our stowage of the vane which we dismount when we are at anchor or in port. To this end, will you please give me a price for the following parts:-

Item 4 – Vane slot collar
Item 6 – Vane slot sleeve
Item 32 – Vane knob

Basically I want to be able to clamp the vane on the back of one of our cabin doors when it is not in use.

Regards Brian Kelly

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