True Stories

From: Rob Bell
Sent: February-08-12
To: ‘Will Curry’
Subject: RE: Website info

Hi Will

It took us a while to get the hang of things using our Hydrovane as I explained before, but now we hardly every sail anywhere without using ‘Henry’ (named after Henry the Navigator.)

You could introduce a fun section to your website inviting owners to submit the names they have called their units. You could always use this another day for a good PR story. I bet there are some good ones out there!

We also found the idea of marking the control line wheel with two colours of reflective tape really helpful and it made a big difference when setting up each time.

Many thanks for a great product and support.

Best wishes

Rob & Sarah Bell

Travel Log: www.rhbell.com

From: Sailmail Address
Sent: February 11, 2012
To: Valerie Williams
Cc: John Curry
Subject: The new rudder – A revelation

Hi Valerie & John

Just a note from the Pacific to let you know we’ve tried out the new rudder and it works a treat. It was gratifying to learn that it was definitely the rudder and not us that was the problem! She’s now holding a nice straight course, even with just the Parasailor up on a reach in a bit of swell. I’m sure it will get even straighter as we become more familiar with tweaking it.

Along with the Duogen, I think we may have found our star performers for our circumnavigation. Unfortunately we have not been so lucky with the generator and have had to give up on it; very frustrating.

We are motoring towards Galapagos now in a dead calm after a couple of days’ great sailing. All we need now is wind and we’re away again…

All the best,
Jonathan & Heather
S.V. matilda

From: J. Peter White
Sent: February 06, 2012
To: John Curry
Subject: Hydrovane just saved my boat, and maybe more… [Emergency Rudder]

I have a C&C 39 with a semi-balanced spade rudder. My intent was to go off-shore sailing with my family. To ensure that I did not have to worry about the rudder, I had xxxxxxx design me a new, updated rudder. I then had xxxxxxx build the new rudder. And to really be sure, I put a Hydrovane on the back of the boat.

Myself and my two young boys (10 and 12) were entering between the two rock breakwaters of the Nuevo Vallarta channel down here in Mexico. Well, the channel into the marina was running quite a bit of a swell, with breaking waves along the rocks. My youngest son was at the wheel, so I told him to speed up so we could try to keep ahead of the waves and not broach going in.

As we entered between the two rock breakwaters he started yelling that he could not steer. I grabbed the wheel and nothing. We were veering off towards the rocks of the breakwater at close to 5 knots. Thinking the steering cable broke I hit the autopilot. I could see it turning the shaft and still nothing. People started waving us off and passing pangas started yelling at us to get away from the rocks. I put the boat hard in reverse and then the waves started hitting us. According to the depth sounder we should have hit bottom, and I thought we are either going to be smashed against the rocks or we were going to get knocked down. From backing hard into the waves the cockpit started to get flooded.

Then I remembered the Hydrovane right behind me. I pulled the pin and pushed it over hard, and before you knew it we are back in the channel, and at the slip. Looking at the boat from the side we saw that the rudder was completely gone. We later found it drifting in the channel. The shaft had sheared off, perhaps from corrosion from some as yet undetermined source.

This was the day before yesterday and just wanted to say ‘thanks…’

Peter (Kai and Liam) White
SV Outrider

From: Gavin MORGAN
Sent: November 19, 2011
To: John Curry
Subject: RE: Teething problems

John,

Just to let you know that we have now arrived in Cape Verdes (some 980 miles at sea with 85 % under the Hydrovane). The problem was not one of a lack of balancing the sails as you had suggested (I find Hydrovane very forgiving actually). We had another Brit who had fitted Hydrovane in Gibraltar have a look at our set up and we found that the rudder was slipping on the shaft. I had thought we had tightened it sufficiently and I did not want to over tighten it and damage the shaft. However the casting needed to be a lot tighter than I had imagined. With this put right the Hydrovane sprung in to life and is now deemed amazing by all on Secret Smile.

I mention about the rudder shaft tightening in case any other client makes the same mistake. In my experience unbalanced sails only means wobbly lines on the chart plotter – and when you work out if you are luffing up or not you can adjust the main (or the foresail) to smooth out your course. Our problem had been that hydrovane looked like it was turning but no turn happened (I was wondering if the rudder was big enough to turn my boat – which now I realize was rubbish and it makes me smile)

Hydrovane has now become an invaluable crew member and we are very pleased with him.

Kind regards

Gavin

From: Amanda Springate
Sent: December-13-11
To: Will Curry
Subject: RE: Hydrovane Parts

Hi Will

The Hydrovane is fitted to a Hallberg Rassy 40 I will look for some photos. As far as performance is concerned i was amazed. I fitted it to the new boat because the circumnavigation would take us to parts of the world where it would be possible to get some rudder damage, I did not really think about it as self steering gear, just an emergency rudder. I needed something and it was the easiest to fit four bolts and about three hours.

We sailed from uk to gibraltar with the electronic auto pilot. Sailing from Gib to the Canaries we got not very nice weather 30+and big seas maybe 4 meters off the quarter. The auto pilot would not deal with these at all well. I set up the hydrovane for the first time which basically meant setting the vane into the wind and pulling out the pin. After about 15 minutes the boat was sailing beautifully and used no power – what a bonus. We have never looked back.

It has steered my wife and I on Riff Raff most of our 32000 mile voyage. With just one of us on watch at night going down wind when the squalls hit it would just would just go the wrong way for half an hour or so without having to wake up the other. I can’t speak highly enough about it.

Once overhauled it will be bolted back on ready for a trip back across the Atlantic next year.

Kind regards

Rob Springate

From: Allen Simis
Sent: November-27-11
To: Will Curry

Hi Will,

It sounds as if EcoTec will stand behind its product, that’s great. Thanks for your assistance in that matter. I’ll paste a response that I received from them, on the tail end of this email.

We are very happy with the performance of our Hydrovane. I’m sorry for not having sent pictures of the install; I will try to do that this week. We have sailed about 4800nm with it since we installed it less than a year and a half ago ( 3 legs between Fiji, and Majuro). The trips have had the wind in every quarter, and on average 3-4 squalls a day. The winds have ranged from very light (8-12kts) to Heavy (40-55kts). The Hydrovane has handled it all.

We are still trying to figure out the perfect balance for Love Song. We have hydraulic steering, and it sometimes takes several degrees of rudder to trim it all out. Even with that we are very happy with the unit. The rudder has developed some twist to it. I don’t think it is hindering the operation of the unit, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

Once again, thanks.
Sincerely
James Simis
S/v Love Song
Majuro, RMI

From: Rachel Hibberd – World Cruising Club
Sent: December-02-11
To: Will Curry
Subject: Hydrovane comments from Watergaw ARC

Hi,

Thought you’d all like this from the log of Watergaw in the ARC:

——

We have not said much about equipment, except for mentioning things that have given us trouble (even if self- inflicted, like the spin pole), but some folk (the geeks amongst you) might be interested. If we have nothing more important to impart, we will pick something – good or bad – and give you a few words about it.

For today’s sermon, we will talk about the Hydrovane. There are several types of wind vane, which control the rudder and course of sailing boats, and avoid the sometimes tiresome task of hand steering (though most of us enjoy this, but not for 3000 miles!).

I took a bit of persuading that investing a small lottery win in a less than pretty (sorry, but it has to be said) addendum to the stern of a yacht was a smart thing to do. They are the preserve of the anorak brigade and sea hippies, and let them keep them, I thought! With some reluctance, we acquired one and had it fitted in Gibraltar, as much because it is also a spare rudder in case a passing whale (see earlier post) deliberately or accidentally destroys your primary steering gear with a casual flick of a tail. Missing St Lucia and hitting Brazil because you can’t control your course would not be popular with all of the crew.

We gave it a fair workout in the western Med, not in Atlantic conditions, but began to warm to its attractions – at about the same rate as we worked out its idiosyncrasies (like how you have to strip down to your underwear or worse and go off the back of the boat to put the rudder on (funds are available to buy the negatives of the photos taken by the hen party boat off Formentera island) ).

We played around with it en route to the Canaries with the full crew, and started to really understand it’s potential. It does not whine and groan in the way the boat’s main autopilot does (or a grumpy crew mate!). It seemed to cope well with big swells, though it does take a bit of time to return us to our original course if we have skied down a big one.

Since we left the Canaries, it has steered the boat faultlessly for almost all of the 1400 miles we have run. It clicks and clacks a bit, sometimes clunks when it has to make a big course correction, and responds (slowly but steadily) to tweaking of the control line from the cockpit. All in all, a worthy addition to the crew complement and proof positive that even an old cynic can be persuaded to revise his opinion. 8 out of 10 (lifting rudder would get it full marks)

——

Rachel Hibberd
Communications Executive

World Cruising Club
120 High Street, Cowes PO31 7AX, UK

From: Dan Hogarth
Sent: October-07-11
To: Will Curry
Subject: Eschaton’s Hydrovane

Hi Will.

Good to meet up with you all at the Boat Show a couple of weeks ago and to see the latest improvements – by co-incidence, I had already moved my stern light to the case frame to improve visibility and reduce reflection. Admittedly your version is rather more elegant!

Henry (after the Navigator) has now completed 3 Transatlantic circuits plus a wee diversion up through Norway to Svalbard to chat with Walrus. Without complaint he has successfully steering my Rustler 36 through all weathers and conditions including the tail end of a hurricane and downwind for several days in very light airs. If he could just make cups of tea…..

He was fitted from new based upon the experience from other Rustler owners who are, to say the least, strongly opinionated about most things, and of the ones that I spoke with that cross oceans the consensus was that a Hydrovane was the answer. I concur. Whilst one could ramble on about its virtues, I believe that they can be summarised very simply:

It works as and when required;
It is completely independent;
It is very robustly built.

I speak with experience on the latter as it has been proven on several occasions when other boats have tried to share the same spot as me. The most dramatic was a heavy 42’ yacht that blew down hitting Henry square on with their CQR anchor. It stopped. Smartly. The only damage to Henry was a chip out of the axis knob plus some scarring to the casting.

My one regret (apart from tea making) is that I did not affix my Tillerpilot to the tiller arm. Having a Tiller steered yacht this would make obvious sense (after the event of course) and I suspect that it is only a matter of time before I add that option as the load – even on a reasonably balanced rudder – must be far less and will thus reduce the stress on the pilot as well as consuming less power. Having fitted a Duogen wind/water generator a year after commissioning, I would have gone for the offset mounting but it all works just fine although a tad tight.

The personal service provided by the Curry’s is excellent and it is always a pleasure (well for me anyway) to meet with them at Boat Shows and to find out the latest improvement/enhancements. It is good to know that the product is continually being enhanced to keep up with the improvements in materials and engineering capabilities.

About half of my trips are classified as single handed although with Henry constantly at the helm, this is probably not strictly true – thank goodness.

With thanks for an excellent product & personal service.

Best regards to all

Dan (Hogarth)
SY Eschaton

From: Stein Olav Pettersen
Sent: November 11, 2011
To: Will Curry
Subject: SY Hero – Hydrovane

Good morning John and Will,

Have now used our windrudder one year and it did the steering job perfectly for us across the Atlantic and the longer distances between islands in the caribbean. Now the boat is on the hard in Trinidad and I just noticed that the shaft bottom collar is cracked and a bit corroded.

Seems like you have changed this for a plastic version. Is that right? Wondering how important this part is. If it’s just a spacer it will probably last a bit longer, but in long term I will have to change it.

Best regards

Stein Olav Pettersen

[Editor’s note – Newest version of Shaft Bottom Collar is made of stainless steel.]

From: Bill Ennis
Sent: November-04-11
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Installed!

Hello,

The wonderful Baja-Haha has ended and we’re in Cabo. Thank you for
supporting the event.

HV worked very well. Am continuing to learn.

B.

From: Keffords
Sent: November-03-11
To: Will Curry
Subject: Hydrovane – Tashi Delek

Dear Will,

We are in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands having had an excellent sail down from Gibraltar via Madeira. The Hydrovane was fantastic, we love it. Thank you.

However, a yacht has just moored opposite us in the marina with a dark (navy) blue stubby vane cover ……………….. and we think we would likeone too! We had not thought nor were aware that there was a choice ofcolours, having only ever seen red! How much do they cost and could it be shipped to my sister in New Jersey?

[Editor’s Note: Sorry, Stubbies are only in red – for emergency purposes, the red vane might be the only way you can be seen at sea]

With best wishes,

Mike

From: Russell Worrall
Sent: October-18-11
To: Will Curry
Subject: NC 44 Worrall Wind

Hello Will,

Our Hydrovane or “Heidi” as we call her has been our loyal and trusted third crew member. In our passage from San Francisco to Australia via the South Pacific she has steered the boat 94% of our logged hours for a distance of over 12,000 nm!

She has performed perfectly in all sailing conditions, though she seems to prefer the stronger winds and bigger seas unlike her human crew members.

The Echotec water maker has also been working perfectly.

Thanks for everything,

Russ and Roz
S/V Worrall Wind

From: Derek Shields
Sent: October-15-11
To: Valerie Williams
Subject: Re: Gibraltar Delivery Derek Shields

Hello all,

I thought you might like to see photos of my Hydrovane installation. It went like a dream, took 10 hours and was installed within 2 1/2 days of delivery, thanks to the well engineered design and fantastic instructions. Now all I have to do is test it. But there are 8 Hydrovanes on boats in Gibraltar now and all the owners have come for a look at mine and without exception have commented on how good the Hydrovane system is.

Thanks for the fantastic service to date.

All the best

Derek

—

Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 1:32 PM
To: Will Curry; ‘Valerie Williams’
Cc: ‘John Curry’
Subject: Re: Gibraltar Delivery Derek Shields

Hello Will,
Our berth is right at the base of the stairs to the marina office opposite the showers and toilets so I think everybody in the marina passed by during the fitting. Many were very impressed and have since come back to ask about the Hydrovane. I left the vane on for the first day to show off the name! But I am really impressed by the number of cruising sailors who praise the Hydrovane and back it up by having one on their yacht. It seriously outnumbers all other makes by at least 5 to 1!

You are welcome to add my email to your web site if you wish. I will also send you an appraisal from the other side of the Atlantic you can add as a sequel. I have sailed over 50,000 miles over 26 years with my own handmade copy of the Aries design on my hand made timber 35 ft sloop Sagan including a single handed voyage from Durban to Hobart so I have some experience in this field.

But I am very proud to have a beautifully engineered Hydrovane gracing my transom and all and sundry making positive comments about it.

I had an old sailor called Ted [Ted Devey] who says he is one of your recommended installers and has installed 11 units and knows everybody concerned with Hydrovane give us very high points for the installation.

All the best to you all
Derek

From: Bryan Pollock
Sent: September 28, 2011
To: John Curry
Subject: Amazing vane results but Broken mounts

Hi John,

Bryan Pollock here. You know, the guy with the Spencer 42 and free standing mast.

You’ll be happy to know that the Hydrovane got us down here to San Diego after a rough passage that never let us shake out the three reefs and small staysail. The vane worked flawlessly steering in some very screwy waves and wind and got us through some bad gales. We didn’t touch the helm once except to gybe or tack. At one point all I could or would do was hide down below with my face buried in my pillow crying for my mommy. Mr Wobbles just merrily steered the boat through all that bad mojo with aplomb.

The main reason for this note apart from my wishing to let you to know how well the Hydrovane did under very trying conditions is that I would like your opinion on a repair I am about to do to the transom and Hydrovane mounts. During the passage the vane mounts had started to slowly pull the nuts and washers through the backing plate and transom. It was ultimately found to be pretty loose which would explain the increasingly louder and louder reverberating thuds we would hear throughout the hull. In fact it was that scary sound that led me to the discovery of the loose bolts. I think perhaps the bolts stretched and allowed the movement to slowly pull the nuts and washers through the backing plate.

Of course all of this was found out in thirty knots and very short and steep seas in the Channel Islands. Another emergency backing plate of plywood and G10 plate saved the day. I’m going to replace the core in the transom with West epoxy and high density structural filler. On top of that I will layup a solid 1/4 inch layer of knytex cloth (about eight layers lapping the entire inside of the transom. Then a 1/4 inch or so of G10 backing plates to finish up. I’m certain this structural change will help and may in fact be all the install needs to prevent a reoccurrence.

This leads me to my main question. I’m thinking of installing 45 degree angled struts either side of the lower strut in a horizontal plane in stainless steel. I thought I would collar these struts around the SS tube just aft of and snuggedup close to the lower cast aluminum collar. I think that the side forces with the single strut were enough to start the bolt movement I described above. Normally I would just upsize to the double strut kit you sell but for two reasons. One, I need to finish this repair/upgrade in the next week as we head down the Mexican coast in two weeks. And two as I recall the double strut kit you supply is breathtakingly expensive. I guess I’m asking for your blessing or at least opinion regarding a non stock modification or addition to your standard single strut mount design.

The other question I have is the bolt sizes. I cannot remember what sizes you recommend.

Anyway, sorry for the novel. I wanted to bring you up to speed with the vane. I have concluded that the earlier problems you and I witnessed while test sailing the Hydrovane on this boat had less to do with sail trim and more to do with a mainsail that has way too much shape built into the top half of the sail.

I know this to be a fact because we swapped the old rudder and wheel onfiguration for a new spade rudder and tiller setup two years ago. The boat when properly trimmed is very easy to steer with just the tiller. Very little or no weather helm. However with the vane on it still struggled keeping the boat on course. No weather helm or very little so trimming was correct. After this trip down it’s pretty evident to me that the next mainsail will have a much flatter top half to allow the vane to do its work.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts

Cheers,
Bryan