True Stories

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

From: Vladimir Apukov
Sent: August 05, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Re: Need consultation

Hi John!

thanks for instruction, I refit it. I try do it without lubricant ? it’s very hard

It’s true wind 3Knt, I have video with 1,6-1,9 knt wind – and it still drives!!! but it not downwind (broad reach)

I not include this part because – I take video at this moment just from instrument, not sail not water

Vladimir

From: Vicky Plett
Sent: July-19-12
To: Will Hydrovane
Subject: RE: pics

awesome where in la paz.. are you sailing the summer there?

i have some favorite places..

yes i can send you pics and wow.. the crossing .. i kept look back at Barry ( named after my dad he taught me to sail) anyway. i kept feeling i should be doing something… for 264 miles i did nothing.. then wind and seas got weird..had to tweek every so often yet.. i sat there thinking i should be doing something the seas the winds.. ..

have some great pics of the vane.. in all kinds of lights.. more of the skys and etc..

will not do another passage without. and funny here.. and in Galapagos.. other cruisers..with the hydrovane make a point of coming by … we all love them.. would not ever be with out.. i seem to be the only one with the short…

i will order one when i know where i can send it..

how are you enjoying the sea.. i know it will be my long term cruising grounds for winters out of BC

take care…

vicky
Vicky Plett
“Inspiration At Sea”
Sailing the South Pacific

From: Tom Vernon
Sent: July-19-12 4:11 PM
To: Will Curry; John Curry; Valerie Williams
Subject: Re: Fitting hydrovane

Dear Hydrovane Team,

I just wanted to write to say thank you for the service you provided while I was installing my Hydrovane.

It is now installed with the A- bracket and is working like a dream. I confess I was a little concerned about the auxiliary rudder system vs. a servo pendulum, but the power of the hydrovane has astonished me. I’ve only done about 1000 miles with it so far, but it is now the best bit of kit on the boat. It steered the boat for 3 days on a run like an arrow with the genoa poled out, far better than the autopilot could have.

I once had to put it in ‘second’ gear on a beam reach with 40 knots of wind, other than that it’s been in 1st gear with the vane angled right back the whole time. I’ve used a [popular servo pendulum system] before, and it doesn’t even come close to the performance of the Hydrovane, let alone ease of use.

Regards,

Tom
P.S. anyone installing a hydrovane on a Seahawk 35, Falcon 35, Oceandream or Oceanquest will need the A-bracket, and I would highly recommend they also go for the larger shaft. The seahawk 34 and falcon 34 might get away with the E bracket.

—

From: Tom Vernon
Sent: July-20-12
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Fitting hydrovane

Hi Will,
Of course feel free to use my email, and also feel free to pass my address on to anyone considering installing a hydrovane on a similar boat.

The [popular servo pendulum system] is good as well, but the hydrovane is so much easier to use, and you don’t need to balance the sails so well. In a centre cockpit boat with a sugar scoop the advantages of the wheel being locked with no ropes in the cockpit, and the ability to off-set so you don’t lose your boarding ladder are great.

Regards,

Tom

From: Marc Niewerth
Sent: July-18-12
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Engine mount

Hey Will

Just put the wind vane to work ……

In a word – Wow!

Thanx
Mark and Rey

From: Ola Mossberg
Sent: June-29-12
To: Will Hydrovane
Subject: Performance!

Hi Will!

Now we have tested the new rudder from Portugal to Azores in every kind of wind. It’s a big improvement and we are really happy with the performance. Well done!

Here in the marina in Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel most of the bluewater sailors have Hydrovane!

Say hallo to everybody!

Noa Noa II
Vänliga Hälsningar / Best Regards
Ola Mossberg
Stockholm
Sweden

From: Jean Lachaud
Sent: June-24-12
To: Will Curry
Cc: Sarah Curry; Stephanie
Subject: Re: Hydrovane Performance Report

Salut Will & Sarah,

D’abord un grand merci à Valérie pour avoir patiemment rempli les papiers pour nous aider à importer l’hydrovane au Mexique!

On a décidé de ne pas tester l’hydrovane dans un cyclone dès le début et on a attendu la fin de “Bud” pour partir de Puerto Vallarta. Pour l’instant, on a fait 10 jours de navigation avec l’hydrovane – sur la côte Pacifique du Mexique entre Puerto Vallarta et La Paz. On a essayé à peu près toutes les allures dans des vents allant de 0 à 20 noeuds. A partir de 5 noeuds de vent, notre ketch se met en marche et l’hydrovane le barre parfaitement quelque soit l’allure – de près serré à vent arrière.

Je craignais que la voile d’artimon perturbe l’hydrovane au prés sérré mais elles interagissent sans problème. Les trois niveaux de bras de leviers permettent d’ajuster la puissance de l’hydrovane à la force du vent de façon très efficace. C’est vraiment agréable de naviguer sans le bruit du pilote automatique et sans le souci de la panne d’éléctronique ou du manque d’éléctricité.

C’est simple, depuis qu’on a installé l’hydrovane on a l’impression d’avoir en permanence à la barre un ami à nous qui est excellent barreur. Seulement deux regrets, l’hydrovane ne prend pas les ris et ne fait pas de gateaux à la citrouille.

Translated to English:

First a big thank you to Valerie for patiently filled out the paperwork to help us import the Hydrovane into Mexico!

We decided not to start by testing the Hydrovane in a hurricane, and so we waited for the end of ‘Bud’ to leave from Puerto Vallarta. To date, we’ve experienced 10 days of sailing with the Hydrovane – on the Pacific coast of Mexico between Puerto Vallarta and La Paz. We’ve tried just about every point of sail in winds from 0 to 20 knots. From 5 knots of wind, our ketch starts moving and the Hydrovane performs perfectly regardless of wind direction – upwind to downwind.

I feared that the Hydrovane would be disrupted by the mizzen when going upwind but they interact smoothly. The three levels of ratio gearing are used to adjust the power of the Hydrovane wind speed very effectively. It is fun to sail without the noise autopilot and without concern for the failure of electronics or lack of electricity.

It’s simple, since we installed the Hydrovane we have the impression of having a permanent helmsman, a friend of ours who is great helmsman. Only two regrets, the Hydrovane doesn’t take the reefs, and doesn’t make pumpkin pie.

Jean

From: Martin Wheeler
Sent: June-22-12
To: Hydrovane Will
Subject: Hydrovane

Hi Will

Just checking that you got the photo’s of the boat with the Hydrovane fitted.

We ended up being able to fit the whole unit in one weekend. The hardest bit was getting the A bracket to stay in the position we needed it before we clamped it all up. Once we got that it was relatively easy, we only had to cut one arm in one place and the offcut from that fitted the other side! When we finished we also noticed that we hadn’t even covered up the boat name, so saved ourselves major hassle there too!

I went out and tested it on Sunday and was amazed at how good it was when I had set it up. I am going to have to take a lot of books with me to read, so I don’t get bored!

I did notice that the adjusting line didn’t work when the I was adjusting the vane in the beginning. I had both the rudder and vane unlocked, with the adjusting knob in neutral, but the friction was too great for the vane adjusting line to turn the wheel so had to do this by hand, once I was close to the required setting I engaged the rudder in the 2:1 position (10knots of breeze) I was able to adjust the vane with the line easily.

The only thing I can think is that when the rudder is in neutral there is too much friction. I fitted the tiller arm as per your instructions and the dark collar spins freely when the unit is set to the 4:30 position. Any suggestions as to how to reduce the friction, or am I doing something wrong?

Regards
Martin

From: Eleandro SY Mahina
Sent: June-21-12
To: Will Curry
Subject: Hello from Mahina

Good day Will …. Emailing you from Marquesas French Polynesia!!

So I am please to inform you that My Hydrovane as successfully done over 10000nm since leaving Malta on Nov 29th 2011.

I do need your help in some regards:

• Half way across the pacific the rudder pin came out and lost …. Thank God I had a lanyard on the rudder otherwise I would not be happy right now. I hitting in a bolt and nuts and is ok but still would like a pin or 2 as it is easier to get in and out … this time I will put a small lanyard on that too.
• The booster pump on my water maker (which also is working ok) as already been replaced in the Caribbean through Trinidad as it stop completely (paid loads of money for it). Now it’s ccb is tripping. Guess I need a replacement. Any chance I can get this under warranty?
• Would like to order a mineral filter to replace the old one that came with the system (been over the 6 months now) … also a charcoal filter.

My friend that joined me in Panama (not much of a sailor) asked me what was that mechanism at the back of the boat and reply straight away that that is Taurus (Nick name) and he is the mate on board. Anyways after seeing what he does for us she fell in love with him too. So much so that I ordered my crew to dress up for the equator crossing and she dressed up as Hydrovane …

Thanks
Eleandro
Sy Mahina

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