From: Carol Dupuis
Sent: April-11-12
To: Will Curry
Subject: Hinge pin

Will,

Just to let you know that one of the hinge pin from the vane assembly to the black hockey puck fell off in the middle of our 27 days passage. Funny enough, it took me two days to figure it out. Even with only one pin, the Hydrovane was still performing great. I replaced the missing pin with a clevis pin. The set screw was back off. Is that a common problem?After further inspection, all other set screws were tight.

[Editor’s note: That is a ‘loose axle’ problem described in Troubleshooting] 

All and all, the unit performed really well during our passage, many boats had to hand steer because of poor vane performance in light air and moderate seas. Not us, the vane kept going, except for three or four times when momentary hand steerage was required to bring the boat back on course. Just to inform you that many people coming down the US/Mexican coast, last fall, hated their Hydrovane. Rare we heard good stuff about it. But, after talking to them, they never tried it in ideal conditions prior venturing offshore. Au contraire, all the boats who trial it prior their trip, were very pleased. I will blame the instructions handout for this. All the info is there, but hard to find.

[Editor’s note: some of these boats also had the ‘overbalanced’ boat-dependent rudder and needed a replacement – see other testimonials from around this time] 

Cheers from the Marquesas.

Carol Dupuis and Livia Gilstrap
S.V. Estrellita
Wauquiez Pretorien

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