True Stories

From: Jeremy Spencer
Sent: March 28, 2016
To: Will Curry
Subject: Parts for Sal Darago

Dear Will,

On 25/10/2007 I bought a VXA 2D M/HH Hydrovane unit. I fitted it to Sal Darago, our 36ft Westerly Solway. In 2008 my wife and I set off around the world. We returned to Lancashire, England in the summer of 2014 having achieved our aim.

Unfortunately, on a close inspection, we find that “Heidi” our Hydrovane, which steered magnificently at all times under sail, has three items which need replacement and one spare is also required. Apart from a new dress while we were in the tropics, no other work was required on Heidi, which is quite a testament.

• Vane knob or clamp (part 32)
• Axis knob or clamp (part 33)
• Bottom collar with set screw (part 26)
• Locking pin and retaining clip (part not known)

…

Best wishes,

Jeremy Spencer

[Editor’s Note: Esa kindly forwarded us his email response to a potential customer who reached out for feedback about performance on the HR 42E]

From: Esa Kalervo
Sent: March 23, 2016

Thanks John,

Here is my answer.

Esa

—

Hi Massimiliano,

I have sailed with my Hydrovane about 55 000 nautical miles and I can recommend it.

The most important thing is that it is totally independent of boat’s steering system. We had during our first Atlantic Crossing 2012 problem with steering cable and we used Hydrovane tiller while fixing that problem.

Mizzen boom

We have not used mizzen while sailing close hauled upwind. Mizzen gives practically no power in that situation. You just keep boom on one side with preventers.

There is no problem while you sail downwind. Just be carefull with preventers.

I have used topping lift to get boom high enough while gybing. But one should be very carefull.

Shaft locking pin has broken many times because of propeller’s effect to the rudder. One should have spare pins onboard. We have changed vane cover perhaps once per year because of sun.

As a whole I am very satisfied with my Hydrovane. 90% of our circumnavigation was downwind sailing. F.ex. between Cape town and St Helena we sailed five days and nights in a row just with Spinnaker on and Hydrovane took care of steering.

We spent last year from June to November in the Mediterranean and visited f.ex. Southern Sardinia and Southern Sicily, then Pantelleria and Lampedusa while sailing to the east. Later we visited Messina and Olbia.

We are now in Plymouth, UK, and sailing back to Helsinki where we are in the middle of May.

I will be happy to answer if you have any more questions or comments.

Esa Kalervo

s/y Marisol

Please use in the future this email address instead of sailmail address

From: Ian Sprigings
Sent: January 03, 2016
To: Will Curry
Subject: Watermaker

Hi Will,

Firstly, happy new year to you all.

We have now crossed the Atlantic and are currently in Bequia in the Grenadines. I must say the Hydrovane was an absolute joy to have and certainly one of the best decisions we made when kitting out the boat. We felt very grateful when we kept coming across boats that had had issues with their electronic autopilots.

The Watt & Sea was also brilliant, albeit a constant challenge to keep weed off it during the crossing!

The Echotec watermaker has also worked very well, but we currently have an issue that I would like your help with. When running it today in the anchorage I noticed what I thought was water coming out of the control panel. I assumed it was probably a joint that had come slightly undone as it was only a very small amount. On taking out the panel I noticed that the rubber grommet at the top of the pressure gauge had come out and the water was in fact the oily liquid from within the pressure gauge. There is now about 1/2 an inch air gap at the top of the gauge.

Is this an issue? What actually is the fluid? Should I top it up?

Many thanks for your help.

Best wishes

Ian Sprigings.

[Editor’s note: The leak on the pressure gauge was simply because the nipple on the top needed to be pricked to release the air.]

From: Chris Mennem
Sent: February 29, 2016
To: Will Curry
Subject: Hydrovane endorsement

Dear Will,

I don’t think that I have ever written to a company before, to endorse a product of theirs, but my wife and I have been so impressed with the Hydrovane that I wanted to let you know this.

We ordered the unit in January 2015, and it was quickly delivered to our winter base in Sicily, in strong, well-designed shipping boxes. I found it straight forward to mount on the back of our Jeanneau 45.2, with the help of your simple and clear instructions. I was immediately impressed with the quality and engineering of the Hydrovane, and my respect for it has grown with each passage we have done.

We left Sicily in May 2015, and worked our way to Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde islands, Barbados and currently St. Lucia, from where I write this in late February 2016. With every passage we were able to use it more, and on the Atlantic passage, it steered us perfectly for over 90% of the trip. On one occasion we were wing-on-wing for over 8 days, with winds to 30kts, at about 150° apparent, with waves big enough to surf down, and the Hydrovane coped perfectly all this time – absolutely amazing!

With just two of us on board, I wanted a system that was simple and effective to operate, and it has exceeded my most optimistic expectations by a considerable margin. It truly is our third crew member.

On a separate note, I wanted to show you the vane mounting bracket I designed and had made. Somehow I got the measurements wrong and the vane, when mounted on top of the unit, fouled the arch. Having spoken to you, I did not want to make the vane smaller, and therefore came up with the bracket, which lowers the vane by 230mm/9’’ and now clears the arch, regardless of articulation or direction of the vane. The bracket had to lower the vane to one side, so this had to be counter-balanced on the opposite side. I have used zinc anodes and stainless washers to obtain perfect static balance and intend to tidy this up and make it more attractive now I know it works – perfectly! The design was a bit tricky, to ensure that it cannot foul any part of the Hydrovane itself, but I think it looks ok and, most importantly, as I mentioned earlier, it works 100% – all the way across the Atlantic. I just thought you might be interested, if you have not seen this done before.

Thanks again for your advice whilst we were mid-Atlantic.

Warm regards,

Chris Mennem

From: Peter Harvey
Sent: January 29, 2016
To: Will Curry; Sarah Curry
Subject: Re: Installation Bowman 48 Chanto

Hi Will and Sarah,

Just to let you know that we got to grips with the hydrovane, which worked brilliantly when our electrical autopilot failed on the ARC. We even got you some free publicity in PBO!

We very slightly altered the rudder alignment in Las Palmas after our discussion, as we decided it may have been very fractionally off centre and perhaps that made the difference. The only other change was a new cover.

We had a poled out double headsail downwind rig and the hydrovane coped with the swell even in relatively low apparent wind (eg even when we were only doing 6 knots downwind in 13 knots of true wind speed), as well as in 25-30 knots and heavier swell. We generally used it with the vane in upright position (otherwise on certain wind directions it could knock against a gps sensor at extreme deflection) and on the left hand setting. Perhaps we might benefit from your new extendable stubby, but there didn’t seem to be a problem in the upright position.

We learnt when setting it to look at the hydrovane and if it was more frequently nodding one way , adjusted the wheel to make it more even, nodding both ways equally. Once set it would then just run for hours on end with occasional course adjustments when the wind shifted to keep us on the great circle route!

We did have a problem with fields of sargasso weed though! It didn’t like weed and could go off by 40 degrees, but sailing backwards freed it and also loads of weed from the keel, which had been slowing us down.

Many thanks for your help.

Peter Harvey

From: Alain SANIEZ
Sent: January 26, 2016
To: John Curry ; Will Curry
Subject: A bit of a feedback

One year I ordered our new best mate: Hydrovane

As many people consider self steering system as absolutely unuseful with modern designed boat like Hanse, making that choice was challenging.

We sailed from New Zealand to South Africa, nearly 10000 miles. We have been using both our Hydrovane and the two in board autopilot made by Jefa, with their Simrad wind vane. We did a lot of test trying to challenge each with the other. We sailed the 1000 miles from New Zealand to New Caledonia with the Hydrovane only: it was great and HV did a great job with winds between 10 to 45 kt. Thanks for this beautiful piece a gear which is more than…a piece of gear but a real third mate on board!

You find here under some pics: installation on board of Uhambo, a Hanse 430e, and an overall picture of the visitor’s pontoon in Noumea where we could count nine Hydrovane at the same time!!!!

Kind regards

Alain

Photo: Custom top bracket that incorporates structure for [another windvane servo model] that was removed in NZ.

From: Eugene Motzheim
Sent: October 26, 2015
To: John Curry

Hi again

New pictures, the choice is yours!

I forgot to tell you what a splendid job the Hydrovane is doing! Our boat is 40 ft/10 tons/draft 2,30 m with a spade rudder. On our trip this summer we were out on the North Sea for 74 hours with winds from 10 to 40 knots, wave height was up to 5m, breaking seas because of tidal streams. We sailed both uppwind and reaching, the latter can be a bit delicate because of the big IOR-belly our Jonmeri has. But, the Hydrovane was just steering and steering, required no attention at all! As we sail shorthanded, husband/wife, the vane became soon our best mate. Better than our Neco, who gave up two weeks ago – electrical problems…

Regards,

Jonmeri 40 “Move On” from Sweden
Eugene & Angelien

From: Nick Fabbri
Sent: September 22, 2015
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Watt and sea generator for Southerly 38

…

We used the unit across biscay in force 3-6. We had the unit on the smallest ratio setting , so it barely moved the rudder with the wind. This resulted in a very straight course.

It works admirably, in fact I professed to having a crush on it, as it was so useful.

As for feedback…..

Well we met another southerly 38 with one attached on starboard (ours in on port). We both had to compensate for the drag by locking the wheel off centre. Ours is about 5 degrees to starboard, his to port.

It is correct that the sails need to be balanced.

Also we are still not 100% about which way to pull the string to change course. However that will come with time. It’s just practice.

I have no real negatives or criticism of the unit. It will hopefully steer us over the Atlantic and beyond .

One point is that we have a lifting keel. The rudder needs to be removed before drying out.

Also we are not sure whether to antifoul the rudder as it goes green quickly.

Finally, an installation tip. We have a modern production yacht which is cad designed . Strange angles all over the transom. Thus a nightmare to get the angles correct to keep the brackets parallel to the mast.

However eventually we used an electronic spirit level app on an iPhone. We could work out precisely what the angles were, and transfer that to the band saw to cut the pads.

Also if you keep the other piece of wood from the angulated cut, it can be used to level out the angle of the backing plate, thus ensuring perfectly aligned bolts .

Anyway, I look forward to getting your quote, after that I will see if our budget can stretch.

Regards

Nick fabbri

From: Jeff
Sent: August 31, 2015
To: Will Curry
Subject: Hydrovane – Thanks and parts

Dear Will,

The Hydrovane is an outstanding piece of engineering. We have used ours for over 8000 miles now, and we are very happy with it! Thank you and your company for producing such a wonderful mechanism.

As we will soon be in Australia, would you please be so kind as to tell us how we could get additional safety pins and covers for the wind vane? If we can get them in Australia, that would be great. If we need to order them from you, how would we order them, how much would it cost, and how long would it take to get them from you?

Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Jeff
s/v Joyful

From: Colin Bastable
Sent: October 17, 2015
To: Will Curry; John Curry
Subject: Frank (Sadler 34) Hydrovane fitting pics.

Hi all.

Back in March you asked if I had any photos showing the installation of my Hydrovane.

I have only just returned to the boat, which is in St Croix, and I took some pics. Not especially pretty but if anyone needs a reference for installing on a Sadler 34 then they are adequate.

Once you had helped me repair the twisted shaft (mid Atlantic) the Hydrovane went from “bloody” to “bloody marvellous!”

Colin Bastable
“Frank”

—

FROM THE BLOG….

9. My Hydrovane did not work. It kept wanting me to head to port. But my satcom did work, so eventually I emailed the company and sent them some photos. It transpired that a boat had hit my stern (probably in Gosport Marina) and bashed the Hydrovane rudder drive out of line. So with some great tech support from Hydrovane, mid Atlantic, I hung off the stern and with some nifty spanner work set things right.

10. Before fixing the Hydrovane I had been using my Autohelm. The original one burned out in Bascay when it was deluged with water and shorted out, but I found a replacement on eBay, and fitted it in January ’15. The problem being that it required a lot of battery power, which meant running the engines, and also lengthy spells of hand steering. It is easy to lose concentration when hand steering, especially close to the wind, when a tied tiller is not so effective.

11. I can heartily recommend a (working!) Hydrovane. As soon as I had it set correctly, it worked flawlessly all the way to The Caribbean.

From: horatio sinbad
Sent: August 19, 2015
To: John Curry
Subject: H of G

Ahoy!

It has been a very active summer for me with plenty of chances to put the Hand of Good to good use including a trip north to Greenport, NY and New Bedford, MA for to events. The H of God performed very well. I thank you for your help in making it all happen.

I have enclosed a few photos of the H of G in action and battles.

Your servant, SINBAD

From: Dee & Pippa
Sent: August 16, 2015
To: John Curry
Subject: My Hydrovane

Hello John,

My wife (Pippa) and I have just finished a seven year circumnavigation in our 48 year old Elizabethan 31.

Our trusty Hydrovane did most of the steering. We think it was equal to not one, but two extra crew. Unfortunately we hit a snag on our final passage from the Azores to our home in south west Wales. A pin securing the vane to the gear box worked loose. Fortunately I spotted it and pushed it back in, before it fell out completely (6th sense perhaps). I couldn’t stop it working loose, though things improved when I put the vane in an upright position.

I have attached a couple of photos, and would value your thoughts on the subject.

[Editor’s note: We call those stainless pins/rods: Axles. There are 8 Axles in all. Each held in place by a set screw. We use Loctite to secure the set screws. For whatever reason that one has worked loose. For each Axle you can see cavities nearby for their respective ‘set screws’ that hold the Axles in place. The screws are 3/8 inch imperial (non metric). Hopefully you have a suitable Allen Key. If you have some Loctite it is best to remove the culprit set screw, coat it with Loctite as well as the cavity – then re-install it  – tight enough to hold that Axle in place.]

Best wishes

Paul de Mengel

P.S. I have attached a link to my Sailing Blog.

From: Brandt Faatz
Sent: August 10, 2015
To: Will Curry – Hydrovane; John Curry; Sarah Curry
Subject: Yes, It Works Great on the Ericson 38

Hi Curry Family,

I promised I’d let you know how my new Hydrovane performed on the passage from Neah Bay to San Francisco. We completed the passage on July 29th, and the HV performed brilliantly. The Ericson 38 is known to be tender and a bit squirrelly in a following sea. I wondered how the HV would handle that. We had some following seas and a lot of quartering seas in wind ranging from 0 to 35 kts. Sure enough, the boat yawed and rolled like a drunken sailor, particularly in the quartering seas, but the HV handled it all with ease. Only once in these conditions did the rudder stall and require hand steering to get it back on course. Performance was flawless in 8 knots of breeze wing-on-wing and broad reaching with the kite. The best fun was the night-time broad reach across a star-lit northerly gale off Cape Mendocino with bioluminescent breaking seas and the vane steering us at a 7+ knot average boat speed, surfing in the high 8’s. (Hull speed is 7.4).

The standard watch log entry followed the format: position Lat/Long, wind X from direction Y, seas Z meters, Hydrovane driving like a champ. The exception was low wind, as expected, but the vane basically worked in any wind we wanted to sail in.

Oh, and I’m glad I chose the A bracket. Sleep was at a premium, and that extra confidence didn’t hurt.

Thanks for a fantastic product and your excellent post-sales support.

Here are two short videos of the Hydrovane in action.

…and a long video: Passage from Neah Bay to San Francisco

Fair winds,

Brandt

From: De Maio, Steve
Sent: August 11, 2015
To: Sarah Curry
Subject: Re: Shaft Sleeve Part 109

Thanks Sarah,

By the way, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the Hydrovane. I have used it extensively for singlehanding and will take it with me to my next boat. Thank you — it is still the most technically elegant solution i have ever seen for a wind vane.

Sent from my iPad

—

From: De Maio, Steve
Sent: August 12, 2015
To: Sarah Curry
Subject: Re: Shaft Sleeve Part 109

I’m on a Contessa 26 – and am looking around for my next boat however I WILL install it on my next one – looking in the 32 to 35′ range currently.

Yeah, sure no problem you can post it. If you would like some more “color” for the testimonial, The Hydrovane worked very well “close hauled” in a storm off the NW coast of Vancouver Island in late September 2010, I was clawing off a lee shore on one side, and islands on another – winds were reported at 55 knots, and waves in the region were at least “boat length” high and quite steep with the currents. This was an awful night and I was very afraid for myself, the boat and my equipment – I had new found respect, trust and comfort in the Hydrovane after that.

I was also VERY pleased broad reaching almost running in 30 knot winds off the coast of Washington and Oregon State on 20′ wave faces – another boat in the same conditions had their autopilot overheat and they had to hand- steer — which exhausted them. We both pulled in to Newport Oregon to rest. The Hydrovane handled the conditions easily. I was happy to “give the boat more rudder” with the settings on the Hydrovane as the boat yawed on the wave-tops.

“Don’t leave home without your Hydrovane!” I won’t!

From: Hugh Lucas
Sent: Sunday, July 12, 2015 10:04 AM
To: John Curry
Subject: Alignment of Hydrovane

John

Just to say that we realigned the whole unit as this only involved the two bracket mounts and was easy to achieve. Needless to say we over rotated which became apparent when the free swinging alignment of the rudder under way meant that the tiller was not aligned with the collar hole behind for the locking pin. Nevertheless we set up the vane to see if it would work as we assumed the rudder would find the correct alignment, even if the tiller was out. Amazingly it worked perfectly first attempt!! Several people had told me it would take a lot of tweaking and adjusting before working satisfactorily. Maybe we will need to refine for different wind strengths but on the first showing the operation is much more straightforward than I had feared.

I am reluctant now to align the rudder by adjusting the bronze attachment for the tiller and drive rods although I suppose that by holding the tiller in position you could turn the rudder and this would bring the collar on the top of the rudder shaft into alignment with the hole in the tiller for the locking pin. Everything seems to be set up according to the highlighted instructions you sent through (other than the rudder alignment) so I will turn the whole unit slightly back to ensure everything else stays as it should be.

Like most equipment things are more straightforward when playing with it rather than trying to imagine things just from the manual. It seems to be a great piece of kit and for it to work first go was, for me, just amazing!!

Kind regards

Hugh

—

From: Hugh Lucas [mailto:hugh.lucas AT icloud.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2015 10:06 AM
To: Will Curry
Cc: John Curry; Sarah Curry
Subject: Re: Alignment of Hydrovane

Well, sailed over from Padstow (Cornwall) to L’Arberwrach in Brittany overnight and mostly with the Hydrovane. No vibration so the realignment fine tuning seems to have done the trick. Discovered that the third setting (least rudder movement) works best in light wind from behind. Also found that keeping the vane vertical gives the best performance, at least in the 5 – 15kt winds we experienced. It even worked when we were motoring! Some elastic to secure the locking pins when not in use stops them dangling around and you have to remember which way to pull the steering line when adjusting direction but apart from that amazingly easy and effective!! So much nicer and more efficient than using the autopilot that I would recommend one even for non long distance cruising boats.

I’ll send some pictures of the mounting when I get a chance.

Kind Regards

Hugh