From: Jutta Mokracek
Sent: August-10-12
To: Will – Hydrovane
Subject: Re: Spare parts for elderly hydrovane

Dear Will,

Thank you for your speedy reply to our enquiry. You may most certainly put our emails onto your page – we have nothing but praise

Some details as to boat and Hydrovane arrangements:

• The boat is a 33ft steel sloop of about 10 metric tons, built in 1979 in Holland.
• The Hydrovane, model VXA2 (Series 5000) was mounted in 1979.
• The boat is equipped with hydraulic wheel steering. This has allowed us to put some trim onto the main rudder when winds were stronger, which allowed to put off reefing for a bit.

We are sailing this arrangement for 30 years, around the world and Europe (about 60000 miles). We carried most of the spare part Mr Derek K. Daniels suggested to take on board in 1981, but never had to replace a part except for the bottom collar. Had we listened to his advise and taken the rudder as well, we would not have had to improvise an aluminium rudder in Townsville/Australia after having hit an object at night (probably tree trunk).

In all this time we hand-steered the boat twice, but only for safety reasons (wave height): once in the vicinity of Cap Finistere reportedly force 11/12, and the second time in Colombian waters, where the Caribbean Counter current bashed up the seas against a force 9 (steepest waves in all this time).

I always considered the pendulum system as more effective – which might be true with a higher boat speed, but at average speed the Hydrovane remains unbeatable. Even at 0.5knots it steered perfectly.

One doesn’t have to be a genius to realize the robustness and effectiveness of the Hydrovane’s mechanics.

The only points of critic would be the rudder which could be bigger (you have already altered the size as I understand from your site).

The stainless bolts and screws of the flanges don’t go all that well with the cast aluminuim. This leads to difficulties when dismounting the unit after a longer time period.
The attached photos show the mounting arrangement and the recently developed crack (probably developed through oxidation between wood aluminium).

The platform serves as a protection of the shaft in overcrowded harbours.

Enough of the boat. Shipping could be either to Germany or Austria. Please advise on that and on payment procedures as well.

Greetings from the too hot Med (45°)….

All the best
Jan and Jutta

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