True Stories

From: P. Harris
Sent: May 15, 2018
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Minke

Hi Will,

I’m now back in Hong Kong – alas, by airliner. Left the boat in Hawaii for now. Weather was terrible all the way, making arrival a bit later than I could tolerate to continue into the typhoon belt.

Hydrovane worked great. Didn’t even require much trimming of sails. Lazy man’s steering. Best thing on the boat without a doubt. (NB: I don’t easily admit when a product is good, so this is quite an endorsement, not that you need it.)

Little recommendation: in the next change to the system, make a slot for the windvane mount to slide into. The current arrangement, with the only support coming from the tightness of the screw, is not nearly enough in my opinion. I tied my windvane on, but I would have lost it otherwise. The vane worked loose a couple times.

Thanks again for your kind help.

All best,
Paul

From: Red Herring
Sent: May 10, 2018
To: Sarah Curry
Cc: Gloria Anderson; Will Curry
Subject: Re: Hydrovane delivered RODRIGUEZ / WATKINS 180079

Hi Sarah,

We are in Bodega Bay right now waiting out a storm. We will likely leave Sunday to finish the run down to Ensenada. Where are you headed? We will be on the lookout for SV Kaiquest.

Yes, that is the Gold Star Marine website. www.goldstarmarine.com. Bill is a new addition to the team as their “sailboat guy” and he did an excellent job getting our hydrovane installed.

We left Port Townsend April 30th to make our way out Juan de Fuca with a destination of Ensenada. We quickly figured out how to use the Hydrovane. It proved itself invaluable the moment the sun set and I could sit and enjoy the evening instead of hold the helm. We hand-steered for only a few hours in our six day trip to Bodega Bay. I do the majority of the helming and it was a revelation to have both my hands free to help in the sail trimming and to just sit and enjoy a hot tea.

There are a bunch of photos of our new Hydrovane in use on the website svredherring.com and at our twitter: https://twitter.com/SV_RedHerring

Jen

From: William Tee
Sent: April 29, 2018
To: will@hydrovane.com
Subject: Water maker problem

Hi Will,

Hope this e-mail finds you OK? Will, I wonder if you can help me please?

We are currently in the Caribbean and I must say we are very pleased with all the equipment you supplied, Hydrovane, Water Maker and Watt&Sea – all working well.

Our friends however, who also have an Echo2Tec water maker, are currently sailing from the Galapagos to Marquesses and a problem with theirs. I think they allowed it to run dry as they were attending a problem with their sails and the boat was rolling a lot probably sucking in air rather than water. Can you advise the most likely fault and a remedy (pump O rings perhaps?).

Cheers, Bill

From: Werner Toonk
Sent: April 11, 2018
To: Sarah Curry
Subject: Re: And …

Hi Sarah,
How are you? Thx for the ratio knob. It fitted perfectly…

We made it all the way to Hobart, over that mighty Southern Indian. Without our Hydrovane that would not have been possible.

There is however one thing that requires attention. There is ‘slack’in the rudder. The pin that goes through the rudder, fits perfectly in the metal bar that goes into the rudder. The two holes on the side of the rudder though have worn over the years. So when steering left / right / left etc. there is always some loose moment. Not that strange since the rudder is made of ‘plastic’ where was the rest is stainless steel.

Please tell me your thoughts and possibilities. The alternative is of course to buy a new rudder, that however will also be the expensive thing I reckon.

Hope to hear.

Werner.

http://karma.wernertoonk.nl

[Editors Note: Not a common problem to have wear in the Rudder Pin hole…  But an easy fix: take the rudder to a machine shop and have them use a drill press to bore new rudder pin holes. Holes must be ABOVE the existing ones and parallel existing hole. Must be exactly 90 degrees to the Shaft hole]

From: Jessie Z
Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2018
To: Will Curry; Sarah Curry; Luke Yeates
Subject: Knock down

Hey guys 🙂

Just wanted to give your company a quick thanks.

We capsized the other night. Lost our rudder. Made it safe to an anchorage with our hydrovane rudder. Forever your advocate.

I have some good footage and photos to send you all. Laptop gone, but when I’m up and running I’ll send them your way.

Enjoy Richmond boat show ! Swing by and Say hi to bob and Jody at cruising outpost for us !

-Jess & luke

From: Athos d’Olivier
Sent:April 21, 2018
To: John Curry
Subject: Re: Beneteau Oceanis 400

So nice to see you at the boat show!

Here’s a more recent shot that tells the whole story of my mechanical self-steering in one tidy image:

From: Andrew Robertson
Sent: April 6, 2018
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Re Bluewater 400 – Hydrovane: All systems Go!

Dear Will

Belated hello from Polaris 2 and our recent adventures in Tasmania where we have finally managed to get the right conditions for setting up our new crew member, Harry the Hydrovane (I bet we are the only ones to come up with this name??).

Here is a link to our recently created blog which features a segment on Harry. Some more photos are included in our blog gallery

https://www.sailblogs.com/member/polaris2/

So far so good – we look forward to extending Harry’s obvious talents on our next voyage.

Cheers

From: SV Bob
Date: Sat, Feb 24, 2018
Subject: Parts Order A Brooks
To: Sarah Curry

Hi Sarah,

First of all I should let you know that the hydrovane you sent me in a hurry when I was in Sint Maarten in January 2016 has been performing beautifully since then. We don’t have an electric autopilot so we rely heavily on the hydrovane and it has been one of very few systems that have needed almost no maintenance. We’re now in New Zealand and plan on setting out for the Torres Straits and the Indian Ocean in June. I’d like to get my hands on a couple of minor parts if possible:

1) A new fabric cover. Its for a standard vane.

2) I hear you have an upgraded retaining pin for the rudder? We do have a problem with the pin shearing through due to vibration caused by the prop wash (yes, I know, I should have installed it off-center but it’s too late now……). How much do they go for?

…..

Very best wishes,

Alex Brooks (S/V Bob) – in New Zealand

From: johan lemmens (Iridium)
Sent: Monday, April 2, 2018
To: Sarah Curry
Subject: Re: Hydrovnane box delivered

Hi Sarah and Will.

We are sailing from Galapagos to the Marquises and have 2200 miles more to go.

The new Hydrovane works very well even in 8 knots apparent wind in the doldrums from Panama to Galapagos.

Now we have a fast beam reach with 8 knots average.

We are very happy with the new Hydrovane and especially its’ ability to keep the boat on the straight in very light winds.

Many greetings Johan.
Ps Watt and Sea work well too.

From: Sarah Curry
Sent: March 8, 2018
To: ‘John Curry’, ‘Will Curry
Subject: Rigging Emergency Rudders article – SAIL March 2018

https://www.sailmagazine.com/diy/know-how-rigging-emergency-rudders

Excerpt from:

KNOW HOW – Rigging Emergency Rudder

ROBIN URQUHART MAR 7, 2018

We were 1,100 miles from the nearest land when we received a text message on our Iridium GO: “Rudder gone. Water in bilge. Worried pumps can’t keep up. Please call!”

We had been in contact with the owners of Rosinante, a 38ft Island Packet, since they had first announced over the Pacific Puddle Jump net that they were having problems with their rudder. We were only 60 miles from them, so we let them know our position and gave them our Iridium Go number in case they needed assistance. Two days later, they did.

We sailed as quickly as we could to their position, making room onboard in case the crew had to abandon ship. By the time we arrived, though, they had the boat under control and were making headway toward the Marquesas. They were steering with their Hydrovane self-steering gear, but complained they couldn’t hold a straight line. They could see the rudder fluttering around under the boat, seemingly barely attached. Three days later, the gooseneck connecting the boom to the mast ripped off because of the way the boom had been slamming back and forth during the many uncontrolled course changes.

We shadowed Rosinante for 10 days and more than 1,000 miles before making landfall in Hiva Oa, in the Marquesas. While steering with the auxiliary Hydrovane rudder was fraught with difficulty, it is unlikely they could have continued without it.

From: Connor Jackson
Sent: March 5, 2018
To: Will Curry
Subject: Checking In!

Hey Will,
Just wanted to check in and let you know the Hydrovane is working great!

We’re crazy enough to be jumping off for the South Pacific, so we’ll keep you posted on how the vane works out on our little 31′ Hunter. Thanks again for the install advice and help!

Cheers,
Connor Jackson
S/V Sea Casa
@sailingseacasa

From: Pat Salvucci
To: John Curry
Cc: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Tiller Pilot
Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2018

Hello again,

Several things I want to write about:

1. The pin that holds the rudder in a fixed position can rattle loose while I sit on anchor. If I catch it soon enough then I just put it back in and everything is fine. But if I don’t pay attention it can rattle far enough out that it will bend and I even had one break. Is there a trick on keeping them in place? I’m currently in Panama getting ready to transit the canal and head west.

[Editor’s note: use a heavy duty bungee in a line to cinch the Hydrovane rudder up when not in use (or when motoring) – reduces any rattle and Shaft Locking Pin breakage]

2. After sailing 1000 miles downwind using the hydrovane 100% of the time, I think I have it figured out. You had some great videos on installing the hydrovane but I didn’t see any that showed how to use one. I’m guessing you are all sailors so the learning curve on using the hydrovane was short one. Not so for us non-sailors. My AHA moment was when I realized that I needed to reposition the sail on the hydrovane to the future position I wanted the boat to take in relation to the wind. Sort of increasing and decreasing the angle of attack. A short video on how to think about positioning the hydrovane sail so the boat moves more to port or starboard would be a great help for us learning to sail types.

3. I found a reef with my [main] rudder in the San Blas which was not fun. It jammed the rudder into the prop which bent the hell out of it. I was able to take the prop off, get in fixed in Panama City and flown back. But we still had to go 150 miles to get to Colon to get hauled out and I had to fix the rudder in place so that it didn’t get into the prop again. I rigged two pulleys on either side of the stern with ropes leading to the cockpit (center cockpit) and headed out. I quickly realized that my system was awkward at best since I had to move both lines every time I wanted to move the rudder. I then rigged bungee cords to pull the hydrovane rudder to one side and one rope to the cockpit that I pulled to go in the other direction. It worked perfectly. I later tied a loop in the rope and I sat with the loop around my foot and just used my foot pulling to steer. I thought I was a genius to figure that out until I got here and read another account of someone losing their rudder and came up with the same system. So to suggest another video idea – how to use a hydrovane as an emergency rudder and what you need to set it up. I would also suggest to have the pump handle that fits into the hydrovane handle pre drilled so that it can be bolted onto the hydrovane handle so you don’t have to worry about the handle falling off.

Anyway made the 150 mile trip over 6 days pulling into anchorages in the evenings and had great maneuverability. It was a total non-event and sailed half the way so didn’t have to use my foot to steer for a good portion of the miles. I have put in a plug for the hydrovane when I tell my story. Nice to have a back up

Okay done with my long email

Pat

From: Chris Glaves
Sent: March 6, 2018
To: Will Curry
Subject: Norseman 447

Hi

Having crossed the Atlantic from lanzarote

In the canaries to St Lucia

I am so pleased that I purchased the hydrovane

I did the crossing in 19 days

We would have most definitely had a really hard time without (Wilson) the hydrovane

We had near gales all the time apart from 3/4 days

I have some go pro videos on the laptop

Hope to get them across to you

Regards Chris

From: Karin och Göran
Sent: January 5, 2018
To: Will Curry

Hi,

… Moreover, which I have not told you, we had a rudder problem 300 nm northwest of Cape Verde on our direct route to the Caribbean – why we changed course for the Cape Verde. We used our Hydrovane rudder as an emergency rudder in 35-40 kn. We balanced the rudder with a rather small sail area and it worked!

You can read all about it on www.sypeach.se Unfortunately this particular text is in Swedish when we sent the text to some Swedish sailing organizations. You may be able to read the text via Google translate.

/Göran

—-

Från: Will Curry
Skickat: den 6 januari 2018
Till: ‘Karin och Göran’

Hi Goran,

Wow, good to hear the Hydrovane saved the day! Can we add this to our website? We will attach your link which will be helpful to other Swedish boats. Did you pass the story onto the OSK sailing club? I google translated the story and got the main idea but was hard to fully understand. What was the cause of the Main steering failure? Was it a broken quadrant?

I’m sure you are busy with repairs but would love to hear further details. Thanks for passing that along.

Kind Regards,

Will Curry
Hydrovane International Marine Inc.

—-

From: Karin och Göran
Sent: January 6, 2018
To: Will Curry

Hi,

It turned out that it was the steel cables that became very loose why the chain jumped out of place. I was dead worried that it was the rudder itself. It was extremely difficult to do anything when it happened when the wind was close to 40 kn. The conclusion for us is to check the cables every day! Along with a lot of other stuff of course.

Yes, the OSK got the article as did the JRSK which is a smaller club located in Gothenburg. We are members of both clubs.

You can add this to your website. Hopefully it might prevent this to happen to other boats if the crew learn to check Everything on basically a daily basis as we have learned.

Moreover, plan to leave Cape Verde on Monday. And, to find competent mechanics on this Islands is very difficult.

/Göran

From: Mattis Voss <mattis.voss@gmail.com>
Date: Jan 25, 2018
Subject: RE: Hydrovane installation photos contessa 32
To: Sarah Curry

Hi Sarah,

I hope you are well. We have just arrived in French Guyana, steered all the way by our Hydrovane. Magic!

Yes please feel free to use the photographs.

I think we are talking about different kinds of vibration. What we had initially was a fairly high frequency hum, which would stop when you held onto the frame of the vane. When down below it sounded like a faint engine noise. It would set the whole stern of the boat off!

We also have a much slower vibration of the rudder, maybe 5 degrees about the centreline and at a frequency of say 5Hz. This did indeed get much better when I added some weight to the tiller (I fastened a big lump hammer to it with a jubilee clip for the moment).

All the best and thank you very much for your help,
Mattis