True Stories

From: Alfred Pisa
Sent:  June 03, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Hydrovane

Hello John,

I bought a hydrovane some time ago (you or rather valerie might remember sending it to turkey by dhl, which never arrived, was send back and you had a hard time getting the cost refunded ).

However, I now had the opportunity to use it extensively in a 15 months round Atlantic voyage (med-gibraltar-canaries-cape verdes-caribbean-azores-gibraltar-med) and it performed beautifully without any adjustment difficulty or problems.

I can sincerely say that this is the best single part of equipment I bought for the boat, ever.

Regards
Pisa Alfred

From: Barbara & Brian
Sent: May-25-12
To: Will Curry
Subject: Vane virtues

Hi Will.

We just arrived SE Sardinia after a nasty passage from the east side of Tunisia. And I’m still tub-thumping over our happy use of iVane. It steering virtually the entire 280 miles. The ride was one of those necessary evils, taking a strong SE wind rather than wait for something worse. The area around Tunisia is relatively shallow with lots of sea mounts and in our 25+ steady winds, the seas were 3-4 m in a hurry. iVane didn’t seem to care, except when the main boat rudder would get knocked aside in quartering seas (I’ve since improved our brake system). Faultless service to our small sample of humanity aboard Red Shoes.

Keep up the good work…
Cordially,
Brian

From: Larry Read
Sent:  April 18, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Test day 8

Hello John

Nelda and I left PV 8 days ago and the Hydrovane has performed very well. We have been in a variety of conditions, fortunately none severe, and have been using the HV for all our steering. We have been plagued by large swells that are coming down from the North from the storms you and California arehaving. It is a struggle for the HV to handle some of these conditions. The only condition it couldn’t handle so far was winds 15, DDW, mixed swell 2.5 meters on the stern, sailing wing on wind 6 to 7 Kts. The vane just didn’t like it and we didn’t like it either. It was horrible as we were thrown one way and then the other by big competing swells. The HV just couldn’t keep up with the huge swings in the direction of the boat. I solved the problem by turning on the auto pilot and using both of them at the same time. After a while I turned off the HV and the auto pilot did far worse at keeping us on course than the HV did. Neither could do it alone but they could together.

We had a boat on the PPJ (Pacific Puddle Jump – Mexico to Marquesas) lose its auto helm steering three night ago. They do not have any alternative but to steer by hand. They are 1000 miles out with 1600 miles to go and as I say the conditions are challenging.

That’s it for the middle of the Pacific,

Best wishes Larry

—

From: Larry Read
Sent: April 27, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Day 18

Hello John

It is good to hear from you. It sounds like Will and Sarah are putting you to work. We are in love with Valerie our Hydrovane. On Monday of this week we encountered our most difficult conditions. We had a section of the ITCZ develop literally on top of us. A friend is tracking the ITCZ from Ca. by satellite photos and wrote, “I hope you are not right here” and guess where we were. We could see three different wall clouds all at the same time!

To make it more fun we had our drifter foul and had to deal with this mess with it up. We saw peak gusts to 38kts for a very brief time. No we did not use the HV to steer through this. Nelda made me go stand in the rain and hand steer.

But speaking of hand steering we haven’t done much thanks to the HV. Yesterday is a good example, we had a very light 8 to 10kt wind all day and through the night including today. We set the HV with our drifter up, it did survive, and didn’t touch the HV or the wheel for over 36 hours. We do keep a 24 hour watch but it’s certainly not to monitor our steering. During this time we had winds as low as 4 kts apparent from the beam and a boat speed of 1.5Kts and the Vane worked great. We usually shut it off because the sails are slating due to the swells, not because it can’t keep a course.

I have been trying to make mental notes on what I am learning about how the HV works as relates to the instruction manual. The manual talks a lot about balancing the boat, and this is the number one factor in our success. But with that said, we rarely have to change the set of the sails to balance the boat. Our procedure is to set the sails and turn on the auto pilot to steer our desired course, then we set the HV to fly back and forth on this course.

We turn off the auto pilot, lock the helm and balance the boat steering to the HV. Just as it says in the manual, if the HV is always trying to push the boat to starboard turn the boat steering to starboard. Once the HV trails straight back, the two are happy together and we lock the wheel and the boat is balanced for a wide range of sailing.

Well that’s it from here. I am glad to hear you talked to Ned and Carol. I know they are very happy with the performance of their HV.
Best wishes
Larry

—

From: Larry Read
Sent: May 13, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject:

Hello John

Nelda and I arrived in the Marquesas the day before yesterday. A 29 day passage. The Hydrovane exceeded all our expectations! In over 600 hours of use it did not loose our course a single time! We even used it while motoring in a storm to assist our struggling auto-pilot. You can’t ask for more than that.

Best wishes
Larry

From: Jaime Rae
Sent: April 02, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Re: Hydrovane Tiller extension

Hi John

We sailed back across the Strait, and the hydrovane steered us to Porlier Pass beating into 22 knots. I really was impressed with how easy it was to set up. We are sailing up the coast to Tofino in June and I am sure it will make the trip a little more pleasant.

Frank did an amazing job on the install, we are more than satisfied. We will have him install a water maker next spring.

[Editor’s note: Custom ‘A’ Bracket in photo]

From: Marc Elbet
Sent: April-03-12
To: Valerie Williams; Will Curry
Subject: ARC 2011 Hydrovane

Thank you for the answer Will,

The Hydrovane was really great!

It was our fourth crew on Hanami II and was named “Barry” by the 2 other UK crews.
It took a day or two to master the fine tuning of it but once we got used to and the sails were well established Barry did a sterling job and consistently steered downwind and some time full downwind for 70% of the trip.

We were quite surprised by the quality of it as downwind is not supposed to be the best wind direction for a wind vane. It was very much appreciated as we experienced some electrical issues during all the crossing and went short of power at some time. Crossing with the autopilot only would have been impossible except if running the engine or the generator half the day which was not possible.

There were small issues, sometimes, when the wind was around 160° or more from behind and as David logged it, “Barry is behaving perfectly, but sometimes gets a bit confused with a big swell and gust at the same time.” It then necessitates some manual adjustments but that’s OK, that’s why we have a man on watch.

Technically speaking, it was easy to install and very easy to take off after the crossing.

Taking it off on the OVNI is almost mandatory as it lies at the place where the tender is usually hanging from its aft support.

During the crossing we had fruits and vegetables in a net where the tender usually is and this had to be adapted as the bottom of net was some time blocking the top of the wane but we managed to keep both.

Well, to make a long story short: it is a great piece of equipment and as it has its own rudder there are no additional ropes blocking the cockpit, no additional blocks, no potential chafe to take care of but an additional feeling of security as it provides a third rudder if we have issues with the boat’s steering system. A ‘must have’ one should say. From this perspective Adrian Flanagan is right!

One small downside for European boats: it needs having US (non metric) spare bolts screws and nuts as those have a very clear tendency to migrate to water at the most inappropriate time!

[Editor’s note: In 2016, most bolts on the unit were switched to metric]

Here are some compressed pictures and a couple short movies.

I hope you will be able to open and use them. If not tell me I will send in another format.
Thanks for sending the case screw then.

All the best,

Marc

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

From: Derek Shields
Sent: March 23, 2012
To: John Curry; Will Curry; Valerie Williams
Subject: It works like a Hydrovane!

Hello All,

Just a short note to let you know the new rudder works brilliantly. We sailed on all points of the wind in 20 kinots today then ran down a broad reach then a run in fading wind. In the finish we were sailing in 12 knots, doing 6 ourselves and the Hydrovane steered Adagio in a virtually straight line in about 1 m seas. Thank heavens for that. I am so relieved!

The first time I tried the replacement rudder it was still stiff but worked better than the original rudder. So I thought I might not have the intermediate bearing. I pulled the whole system apart and confirmed I do have that bearing. In the reassembly process I noticed I had to push fairly hard to get the main tube to fit through the lower bracket. I realigned the top bracket so the tube fitted without effort and tightened everything carefully. The pulling apart and realigning freed up the system.

I think the top bracket was pushed down when I adjusted the height of the system to fit under my stern arch. To slide the tube through the top bracket requires an opener bolt and perhaps I didn’t open it enough and forced the top bracket out of alignment. This combined with the slight distortion from resistance when under way caused the axle to bind in the lower bearing I think. Now there is less resistance and the main tube is perfectly straight and the rudder is balanced and all is well.

Thanks for your fantastic support.

All the best
Derek

From: Carol Backus
Sent: April 21, 2012
To: Will Curry; John Curry
Subject: Bravo to great customer service

Ned and I want to personally thank you both for the great service that you have provided for us and many other hydrovane owners in Mexico this year. For our final trip back from Mazatlan to La Paz, our vane worked flawlessly and was able to steer much more accurately than our autopilot. Haven’t used it in the BIG winds yet but have total confidence.

Your hints need to be posted in three short sentences.

1. Balance sails and get your boat on course
2. Put telltales on the vane, (With all pins still in and autopilot on) get the boat steering the desired course, adjust vane so that all telltales are streaming
3. Pull the pins, turn the autopilot off and you are up and going.

Just as Will said I start with the middle amount of rudder and sail half back. Fine tune from there.

The main comment I have made to those who are not having luck is that total Clear AIR is absolutely necessary so with big blocking biminis, solar panels, davits etc it won’t work. And many of those struggling have only tried the hydrovane once. Trying it in time of crisis or extreme conditions is a poor time to begin.

We really appreciate the attention you paid to us and your efforts to make our unit work. We are passing the word daily about what a good unit the hydrovane is and what a great company you are running. Keep up the good work.

Carol, SV Frannie B

From: Vanja Sorensen
Sent: April 17, 2012
To: John Curry
Cc: Will Curry
Subject: FW: Zuanelli 40 – Hydrovane Installed

Hi John,

We bought the Hydrovane in August 2009 but to test it properly we had to do some serious sailing outside the Mediterranean sea. In September 2011 we finally managed to leave our home port in the northern Adriatic (Italy), and have since then in the period from September 2011 to March 2012, covered 7000 miles. Currently our boat, “Viatrix” a Zuanelli 40 is in Rio Grande in the south of Brazil waiting for us to return for the next leg of the journey.

So far the Hydrovane has made an excellent job, whenever we have had more than a few hours of sailing we would “leave him at the wheel” and we reckon the Hydrovane has done 85% of all the steering during this trip, we were especially pleased with the performance through 800 miles of close hauled sailing during our crossing from Mindelo, Capo Verde to Salvador de Bahia. As explained on your site and as confirmed by many fellow sailors, once the boat is balanced the Hydrovane copes very well with practically all sea conditions.

Our Hydrovane still looks (almost) new, we only had two pins on the rudder blade (part no. 62) breaking and would like to buy 3 new ones from you. Please let us know how to place the order.

We have approximately 1mm of play on the upper shaft bearing, is this normal? If not what parts need to be replaced?

Please also see attached photos, we are quite proud of the installation and thought you may want to publish one of the fotos so that the Zuanelli 40 gets represented in your gallery.

Thank you, Maurizio and Vanja

From: Yves PAGE
Sent: April-06-12
To: Will HYDROVANE
Subject: From SV La Colombe

Hi Will,

I am Yves PAGE, a happy Hydrovane owner since 2009 who sailed from France to New Caledonia with SV La Colombe, a 52 foot long aluminium sloop. I have installed off centre my Hydrovane in Raiatea (French Polynesia) and though my boat is sometime too big for it when the wind is stronger than 25 knots, it performs perfectly most of the time. I have also appreciated the possibility to use it as a spare rudder.

I am now refitting my boat.  As you can see on the pictures attached,  one of  the plastic black screw which hold the cover is broken. I cannot find such a screw here. Would it be possible to send one to me in an envelope at the following address

Thank you in advance.
Best regards.
Yves PAGE
New Caledonia

From: Richard VanAppelen
Sent: April-09-12
To: Will Curry
Subject: Snowaway enjoying Hydrovane on Caliber 40

Will

Hola from Santa Marta, Colombia.

Karen and I are here on our 2008 Caliber 40 LRC with our Hydrovane. We sailed from Grenada to Los Roques, Venezuela in February 2012, about 300 miles, with our Hydrovane steering almost all of the mileage we sailed.

We just completed another 300 miles, from Aruba to Santa Marta – part of a passage described as one of the 5 worst passages to sail in the winter. We were wise enough to wait until the second week of spring but still had winds of 18-25 gusting 32 for some stretches. We were sailing downwind under 110 genoa, often furled to some extent, and the Hydrovane managed well. We had to take over near Cabo de Aguja, which is a point along a stretch of the coast with 5000 m mountains within a few km of shore…there were two sets of waves and we had to hand steer to keep the transom square to the breaking waves…

We have been pleased with the Hydrovane performance this season and look forward to having it steer us back up to Mexico next year.

Having the vane off-centered has had no apparent negative impact on its performance.
Karen made a video of the Hydrovane steering us in 25 knots but the file is too large to send via email – may send via snail mail if you would like it.

Salud
Richard VanAppelen
SV Snowaway

From: Frank Tansley
Sent: March-23-12
To: Will Curry
Subject: RE: Hydrovane question for Will

Hi Will and Valerie –

I wanted to let you both know that if you need a reference for a Hans Christian 41T for the Hydrovane that I’d be glad to be a positive reference.

We’ve had more time to work with it and I am happy with it’s performance. Besides the benefit of self steering a huge benefit for this boat has been the ability to maneuver in anchorages and marina’s better by coordinating the Hydrovane’s rudder with the ships rudder. This boat doesn’t have a tight turning radius and has a mind of it’s own in reverse. But with the Hydrovane rudder combined with the ships rudder I have gained a much tighter turning radius and have more than doubled my ability to control it in reverse.

Fair winds and following seas on the Puddle Jump. We’ll be jumping next year as this year will be the Sea of Cortez.

Sincerely,

Frank Tansley

From: Alexis Lynn Evans
Sent: March-23-12
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Hydrovane Installation Photo

We would be happy to promote Hydrovane. We brag about it all the time.

Yes center mount looks good but being able to check the water flow is worth it. Actually an offset would probably cause it to hit the arch. We have just barely enough room now but we are glad to have had it and actually there were times where we only used a small GPS to tell course and speed and we saved a bunch of power over use of an autohelp and plotter. That was in the lonely Pacific. Anymore it’s so much more crowded that we need to use the AIS anyway.

Nice to chat with you…

Lynn
CYAN IP 380-058
in Marina di Ragusa, Sicily for winter

From: Larry Read
Sent: March 05, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: More data

Hello John

We got in some great sailing this weekend and Valerie [the Hydrovane] worked flawlessly. Saturday we used her on a beam reach and she worked as expected. The big news was how she performed dead downwind. I have had so many people with [popular servo pendulum windvane] and other vanes including HVs tell me not to worry about lack of performance DDW. I have taken that as my new challenge. Saturday we sailed wing on wing, DDW with a boat speed of 4kts and an apparent wind of 3kts and she kept us right on course. Yesterday we were wing on wing in 25kts true with bigger seas. It was a wild ride and a little more of a challenge for the HV but we didn’t have to touch the helm.

Nelda and I did get to meet Will and Sarah. They are a great couple and we had a lot of fun. They do need to work on their anchoring 😉 Their HV installation looks great!

[Editor’s note: Our windlass solenoid switch got stuck in the up position…eeek!!]

That’s it from here. We are off to the States for a few weeks before we jump off the first of April.

Larry

From: Uku
Sent: February-17-12 10:29 AM
To: Will Curry
Subject: Ahoy

Hi Will,

How are you?

Its me – Uku. I did my trip around the world alone. This takes from me 1 year and one month.

With Hydrovane, it was perfect!

I’m thankful for your Hydrovane!

All the best to you and your team,
Uku