True Stories

From: Nello Angerilli
Sent: March-04-10 5:50 PM
To: Will Curry
Subject: RE: quick question and some comments

Hi Will

Regarding my own experience with Wanda, the first time I used the vane it was as you describe below. I set the vane, pulled the pins, and everything worked. Additional understanding of how the vane works was required in either big winds or shifting winds or really light winds. I worked those things out via an iterative process.

Our first experience with heavy weather had us in 40 kts continuous with gusts to 50. The seas were very big (regrettably a couple of really big waves broke on the boat and in the cockpit resulting in a fair amount of water down below; -(

Initially we did not believe that Wanda could steer under these conditions, especially when the boat was surfing down really big waves. However, I eventually decided to give her a try based on the “testimonial” in the owner’s manual, and she did absolutely fine. We were sailing with a triple reefed main only (the third reef is very, very deep).

Warm regards

Nello

From: Ian
Sent: February-21-10 9:00 AM
To: John Curry
Subject: Hydrovane Rudder Pin Query

Dear John

We used our Hydrovane last year and, as I reported to you, throughout it was fantastic in ease of operation and reliability. One thing that I didn’t comment when I wrote to you in the summer was that when moving under power in a marina I didn’t notice any difference from normal with the hydrovane rudder installed. Before buying the hydrovane one of my main concerns was manoeuvring under power with the hydrovane rudder in place. As with many older boats ours is not too compliant with the helm in astern!! After a long trip across the English Channel we arrived in Cherbourg late one night in August and had problems finding a berth. With no marina staff to help this meant searching for a berth – it was pretty busy. Through all the ahead and astern in the fairways the boat handled exactly as I would expect – it was only the following morning that I realised that the Hydrovane rudder was on and locked – I hadn’t even thought about its effect at the time and it had no impact on boat handling in either ahead or astern. I couldn’t have asked for anything better! Brilliant.

However at the end of the season when I went to remove the rudder from the shaft the pin was very difficult to get out. When I eventually did get it out there were marks where the rudder had obviously been trying to turn but prevented from doing so by the pin as the shaft was locked – almost like a chattering of the rudder. We kept the rudder free when sailing but when motoring we kept the rudder locked. We had to motor on some day passages so there was quite a lot of motoring with the rudder locked and fixed. My thoughts on this are that if we are entering or leaving a port/anchorage under motor then we should lock the rudder otherwise we should allow the rudder shaft to be free even when motoring for days. Could I please have some advice from you on the best way to manage this?

Editor note: Best to lock the shaft/rudder when motoring. Add a line with a heavy duty bungee in it, tied to a cleat. This will help absorb some of the load and ease chatter.

Thanks
Regards
Ian

From: Paul Padfield
Sent: December-05-09 1:48 AM
To: Will Curry
Subject: Offshore spares kit

Hi Will,

I require an offshore spares kit for our hydrovane, I am in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.

The hydrovane has been fantastic by the way, it got us all the way here from the UK, best bit of kit we bought!

Look forward to hearing from you

Paul Padfield

From: Sue Cross
Sent: December-22-09 7:17 AM
To: John Curry
Subject: sunset shot

Hi John

This is Sue – the other half of Bob – on Fugue, currently in Mazatlan. Thought you might be interested in a shot of our Hydrovane taken as we made the crossing from Cabo San Lucas east to Mazatlan.

Winds started off quite brisk–in the 35-40 knot range, with steep beam seas (there was a counter current that pushed up the waves). The Hydrovane handled them easily all night.

As we got to the center of the Gulf of California the winds, and finally the seas, abated to a leisurely 8-14 knots as the sun set. The Hydrovane handled these easily, too, and let me get this shot. It wasn’t until the wind fell below 5 knots that the vane began to falter. I suspect that figure would have been even lower if we weren’t compelled to have the stubby vane because of our equipment arch.

Anyway – here’s the shot. Hope you enjoy it!

Sue

From: Ola Mossberg
Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 2:00 PM
To: Hydrovane
Subject: HR 36

Hi!

Last year we bought a Hallberg-Rassy 36 Mark II from 1995. We are planning long time sailing in a quiet near future. So we need a wind self steering.

I’ve had very good experience with an older type of Hydrovane on my last boat – a 31’ Laurinkoster. I also attach a foto with the Hydrovane still perfect working after more than 34 years. After mounting it 1979 and complement with a bigger windvane and more counterweight we set of from Stockholm on our way to South America and Caribbean. That was a fantastic feeling and the Hydrovane worked alright from the first minute. We didn´t use the tiller at all except going into port and motoring.

I bought this Hydrovane second hand 1978 and it is still in good function! Just changed some bearings and the head pipe. So to be honest I have made very good promotion during many years for your company and quality products.

So now I ask you to send me a quotation for a suitable Hydrovane. I intend to place it beside the swimming ladder – about 25 cm off centre.

Hope on a nice price including transport to Stockholm and taxes.

Best Regards!

Ola Mossberg, Stockholm, Sweden

From: Marjan Golobic
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 6:21 AM
To: valerie hydrovane
Subject: H bracket

Hello Valerie,

I made it safely across the Atlantic with the ARC2009 and the Hydrovane performed flawlessly. The H bracket is now safely stowed away in my boat in the Rodney Bay marina on St. Lucia. I will be flying down to St. Lucia end of January 2010, so I am waiting for your instructions about the H-bracket.

Kind regards,

Marjan Golobic

From: Mark Reed
Sent: December-14-09 5:00 PM
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Our trip South with a Hydrovane

We really put the vane through its paces today. Deep reaching in 20kts, steep 6′ seas, heavy surfing. Gradually altered course to windward (using the Hydrovane) as we entered Magdalena Bay, crossed a significant current line, ended up beating hard to windward double-reefed. Hydrovane performed flawlessly on all points of sail, now I totally trust it. We will be getting that large genoa cut down or off the boat!

Thanks for enduring my panic attack: Let me know if there are any specific pictures, reports you would like, and thanks again for the assistance!

Mark

From: Daniel Paull
Sent: December-15-09 5:48 PM
To: John Curry, Will Curry
Subject: Hydrovane Installation

Dear John and Will,

I am writing to thank you for your assistance with my hydrovane installation. We communicated in August and you were both extremely helpful.

The hydrovane unit is one I installed on my Pearson 35, Glide, several years ago and I removed and kept for installation on my new boat, an OverSeas 40, Noomi, when I sold the Glide in Fiji. With your encouragement and advice I did the installation off center and through my stern platform.  I used all of the old components without a longer shaft. In order to do that without compromising my boarding ladder, or having the unit very far off center, I had to mount the unit in such a way that the emergency tiller impinges upon the stern rail and therefore cannot be fitted. (Of course, the emergency tiller is not necessary for emergency steering with the hydrovane rudder.)

I am extremely pleased with the installation and my love affair with the hydrovane continues: I did the installation in New Caledonia, in multiple stages both in the water for the H mount and out of water for the E mount (which is below the stern platform). Just as in Raitea with my previous boat and the same hydrovane, we left the dock with no sea trials, activated the unit, and sailed to New Zealand from where I am writing. Except for some hours under power, the hydrovane sailed the whole way.

I will attach some pictures of the installation and a picture of another boat to which we were rafted up in Whangerei, New Zealand, which shows an interesting juxtaposition of HE and EH installations. The owner of Stormy Monday, who sailed her to New Zealand from Great Britain is also very happy with his hydrovane. Again, thank you very much for your support and please quote me as you see fit.

Daniel Paull

SV Noomi

Whangarei, New Zealand

From: Bill & Tracy Hudson
Sent: December-09-09 6:46 AM
To: john@hydrovane.com
Subject: Our trip South with a Hydrovane

I know you have heard this in the past from many of your customers, but your Hydrovane far exceeded any of our expectations as we sailed south along the Baja coast.

We installed it in Port Townsend and never got the chance to use it until we got South of the border and hit Mexico. Once we set him up he set us straight in light winds and in good winds. Anywhere from 4 to 15 knots, he did just great.

We put up all our sails–Main, Genoa and Forestaysail and he kept us on course. We tried with the Spinnaker alone and he kept us on course just great.

When we were about 150 miles North of Cabo, our hydraulic steering failed (leak in the lines) and we hoisted the sails again and the Hydrovane took over and took us to right outside the harbor without a peep.

What a great piece of equipment for any sailboat. I’d been told by more “experienced” sailors that all wind vane steering systems were a bunch of hype sold at shows, but yours has shown to be a champ in our eyes and since we weigh in at close to 50,000 pounds, I think he can handle any boat.

Thanks for the great new crew member for our boat. Nice to have someone on board that stands many watches and keeps us on course (and doesn’t eat anything).

Bill & Tracy Hudson

Shin Fa 458 (aka Liberty 458)

PS – We love our new Hydrovane. We even named him “James” as he is our chauffeur that always takes us home (“Home James”).

From: Chris Marchant
Sent: December-08-09 2:52 PM
To: John Curry
Subject: Hydrovane Egret

Hope you like these pics. We were over 1000 miles from land en route to Barbados when these were taken. As I write he is still with us 500 miles later! We believe he is a cattle egret blown offshore. Our boat is a Beneteau 423.

Incidentally the Hydrovane was working well in these pictures!

Chris Marchant

PS Sadly I have to report the death of said egret

I installed a Hydrovane on my previous boat (1983 Young Sun 35 — marketed in Europe as a Westwind 35) and it worked perfectly.  I wouldn’t consider any other windvane steering unit. 

Thanks for engineering such a great product!

Neal

From: Jeffrey Kornblum
Sent: November-12-09 6:50 PM
To: ‘Will Curry’
Subject: Performance

Will,

I have just returned from two weeks on my boat in the Charleston, SC area. We sailed using the Hydrovane daily with winds ranging from 10-20 kts. I was impressed with how well it kept us on course. I expected more fluctuation in course as the wind picked up but it held us quite steady. We sailed one day with just the main to see how it would behave and it was right on.

The silence in the cockpit from the lack of autopilot was pleasantly notable. Sorry we didn’t have it before our cruise to the Bahamas but will look forward to our cruise to Bermuda next spring.

Regards,
Jeffrey Kornblum, M.D.
S/V Ko Olina

From: Chris
Sent: October-01-09 11:44 AM
To: John Curry
Subject: Re: Hydrovane

Hi John

We have just laid up after our first season with the Hydrovane and I can report that it fullfilled our expectations. We had a leisurely 2,500 mile cruise round Britain and experienced the usual variety of UK summer weather. The Hydrovane made longer passages much easier and I felt that the boat was sailing better than ever.

The only problem is that I have fitted the bottom bracket too low and so the bottom casting on the shaft drags in the water particularly when motoring.To solve this I intend to raise it by about 3 inches which will reduce the distance between the castings on the shaft to 16 inches. Is this ok? Is there a minimum for this spacing?

Thanks for a superb piece of kit. I wish I had fitted it earlier!

Best regards
Chris

From: Dennis and/or Virginia
Sent: November-05-09 11:02 AM
To: Will Curry
Subject: Hydrovane Installation

Hello Will,

Thought you might be interested in my solution for the installation of our Hydrovane on our 1982 Amel Maramu with a retractable swim platform.

I was seeking a relatively simple disassembly process to remove the Hydrovane in order to deploy or retract the swim platform. The “clamping” nature of the H brackets at top and bottom would require careful vertical realignment upon each removal/reinstallation exercise. Using the E bracket at the top mounting allows the establishment of a vertical registration anchoring point. However, as you may notice in photo # 3, I didn’t have quite enough clearance from the slope of the transom, thus I had to shave 3/4″ off the end of the casting. Having made this modification, I can now remove the Hydrovane (using a outboard motor hoist mounted on the stern pulpit) by removing the rudder and releasing three bolts. This is facilitated by hinged and removable slats in the swim platform. The additional hole cut into the platform slats provides flush retraction of the platform against the transom, allowing the reinstallation of the Hydrovane. Removing the Hydrovane, deploying or retracting the swim platform and reinstalling the Hydrovane takes fewer than 10 minutes.

We have employed the Hydrovane in several crossings to the Santa Barbara Channel Islands in a variety of wind and seas and are quite pleased with the ease of use.

Sincerely,

Dennis Johns
s.v. Libertad