True Stories

From: Roger Bauer
Sent: August 27, 2020
To: Will Curry
Subject: Re: Hydrovane shipment BAUER

Hi Will,

Our new crew member has beginning to work.

Very simple to understand how is working.

It’s only fantastic.

A big compliment to all of you for the care;  at the beginning of the planning, the dispatch of the goods and the installation assistance. Thank you very much.

Best regards

Roger&Brigitte&Hydrovan

From: Thomas Sileghem & An Verstraeten
Sent: August 29, 2020
To: Will Curry; Sarah Curry; Gloria Anderson
Subject: Re: Thomas Sileghem – Alliage 48 CC – Hydrovane model VXA2D L-5/A/H STUBBY

Gloria, Will, Sarah,

Thank you for your support in installing the Hydrovane on Aspro.

The first day we took Aspro out on the sea after the Hydrovane was installed, our old Raymarine autopilot broke down. We were expecting a day of frustrating trial and error to get Claudine, as we call her, to work.

None of that! At the first instance, she did all the steering and we rapidly learned how to optimize and balance. During the following weeks, we had between less than 10 and more than 25 knots of wind, from close hauled to running, in flat sheltered waters and in ocean waves.

Claudine kept Aspro perfectly on course.

We extended the leading lines all the way to the back of the center cockpit and use them to make course changes as we would with our autopilot. Minus the irritating “windshift” beeping.

A big thank you to Alfredo and Alberto from Astilleros Lagos in Vigo, Spain for their patience, thinking and perfect installation!

Attached a few pictures of the installation.

Thank you again!

Thomas and An

From: Tyrbjörn Boström
Sent: August 24, 2020
To: Will Curry
Subject: Malo 38

Hello again!

We have now mount, test and used our Hydrovane and are very happy with the investment.

I made a small movie on Youtube as promised, but i’m not Ingemar Bergman so it is what it is. Hope you have some use of it.

Regards // Tyrbjörn

From: Kerry kirk
Sent: June 20, 2020
To: Sarah Curry
Subject: Kerry Kirk

Hi Sarah,

I have installed the Hydrovane. It looks good, but is just hitting the solar-arch, when the wind is from the side, we cannot lower the unit anymore any thoughts on how to fix this. Sorry I did not take a photo of this happening. I can take some if that will help.

Our thoughts are to pad out the lower H bracket to bring it out about 100mm from the boat, and extend the tubing on the upper bracket.

If you need more photos to understand what is happening or how the install was done just ask.

Many thanks

Kerry Kirk

From: Sarah Curry
Sent: June 23, 2020
To: Kerry Kirk
Subject: RE: Kerry Kirk

Hi Kerry,

Thanks for the photos. You’re right, it looks like a nice installation.

If the Vane makes contact with the arch towards the end of its deflection, it won’t affect performance. You should put a piece of neoprene or rubber where it makes contact.

Could you please measure how much it overlaps? Push the Vane over next to the point where it makes contact and measure how much deflection you loose.

If needed, yes, a longer E Stay Tube and H Spacer Pads are the answer.

Cheers,
Sarah

From: Kerry Kirk
Sent: June 30, 2020
To: Sarah Curry
Subject: RE: Kerry Kirk

Hi Sarah,

I checked the vane and she goes over about 700mm in most angles when it hits the arch it is about 500-600mm but I can change the angle of the vane by tilting it back a bit. When it is vertical it hits almost straight away but tilting the vane back 10mm is enough to miss it. I will keep testing and see how it goes.

My first test sail went very well and I am very pleased with her.

I do have one question though: how do you move the remote course adjuster, this unit is offset at an angle, and I would like to move it towards the center line a bit more so that the line doesn’t chafe on the exit holes.

Thanks

Kerry

From: Sarah Curry
Sent: July 7, 2020
To: Kerry Kirk
Subject: RE: Kerry Kirk

Hi Kerry,

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

Assume no issues on a beam reach or with the wind forward of the beam. But yes, the interference would be when broad reaching on one tack. If you are getting most of the travel before it hits, you should be fine. We recommend to keep sailing with it and see how it goes.

Great to hear you’ve enjoy using the Hydrovane already!

You can rotate the Worm Box Casting:

1. Note the vertical clearance of the casting
2. LOOSEN Worm Box Stud #88
3. ROTATE the casting until the fairleads point in the desired direction.
4. POSITION – Leave half a mm (0.5mm) clearance (use feeler gauge if necessary) between the #16 Heading Collar and the top of the #85 Worm Gear Wheel that extend ups inside the casting. Photo attached.
5. RETIGHTEN Worm Box Stud #88

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Sarah

From: Kerry kirk
Sent: August 7, 2020
To: Sarah Curry
Subject: Re: Kerry Kirk

Hi Sarah,,

Thanks for the info on how to adjust the worm box casing. I have done some testing and got out into Cook Strait in 20-25 knts and she just performed fantastic at no stage did I feel the need to take over as she was helming that well in conditions with wind over tide with 1-2 mtr seas. I have attached a  photo as I pass the Brothers Island with Cape Koamaru in the background.

Thank you for all your help and advice. I have decided to leave her where she is as I think it works fine. If you need any photos for your gallery or a testimonial just ask.

Thank you again

Capt Kirk

From: Stephen Frankel
Date: Tue, Sep 22, 2020 at 8:52 AM
Subject: Performance report – Southerly 115 Mk III
To: Will Curry, Sarah Curry

Hi Will and Sarah – Your recent email reminded me to offer a picture of the installation for the benefit of other Southerly owners. Even though I had read all the highly favourable reports, I like others, was astonished by the sheer brilliance of the Hydrovane. My sea trial was a single-handed passage from Padstow to Falmouth via the Scillies, and I felt at ease with your Hydrovane almost immediately, which was unexpected. It is obviously incomparably preferable to my autopilot, as it is silent and does not drain batteries, but it also helmed impeccably on all points of sail. Thank you for creating such a remarkable piece of kit. “It” is gradually becoming personified, but no fixed name as yet! All best wishes, Stephen Frankel

From: David Faucher
Date: Jul 15, 2020
Subject: Hydrovane fit on Rustler 36
To: Sarah Curry

Hi Sarah

A photo of my Hydrovane fit on the transom of my Rustler 36 for your gallerie if you want.

I am so happy with my hydrovane, a lot of people ask questions about it. Of course I advise and say the best I think with this self steering device😃

Best regards

David

From: Keith Marsicola
Sent: May 30, 2020
To: Sarah Curry
Subject: First Sail on Lucky

Hi Hydrovane Team,

Wendi and I went sailing today after completing the installation and setup earlier in the day.  We were so awed by the vanes performance.  We sailed in 12 – 15 knots of breeze about 60 – 70 degrees off the wind with our inner jib and full main.  The vane steered our 40K pound boat with ease.  The vane would tip 5 to 10 degrees and the rudder would make an immediate correction and the vane would be back up straight, almost instantaneously.  I know we were a little worried that the rudder had the power to steer our big girl, but it was a perfect marriage!  We made some course adjustments for fun and the boat responded happily.

We sat in the cockpit mesmerized by the vane.  It’s been nearly 20 years since we last used a servo-pendulum vane crossing the Pacific.  Today we both agreed the Hyrdovane is a superior piece of equipment! 

We’ll send a set of finished pictures soon.  Thanks for all.

Keith & Wendi

From: Nigel Fox
Sent: December 22, 2019
To: Will Curry
Subject: 4000nm down much more to go

Hi ya Will,

Well some 4000nm on the hydrovane now. So I have now passed the most southern, eastern and northern parts of Australia so far.

Now for the hop across to Indonesia and then around those parts for a while.

The Hydrovane has certainly made me “balance” the yacht a lot better to the point where I can sail a rhum line with minimal tweaks on the sails to keep her on course.

Weaving through the Gt Barrier Reef was an interesting exercise with one encounter while crossing a shipping lanes at a headland to find a Panamax overtaking a bulk carrier.

So an aquatic version of John Candy dresses as the devil laughing maniacally as per Planes Trains and automobiles while both ships passed me either side. Ahhh the joys of playing chicken with over a hundred thousand tons of shipping coming right at you doing 18 knots in an 8 ton yacht. Even more so when constrained by land and reefs. Who said sailing was dull?

The passing through the Gugari Rip (Hole in tbe Wall) was yet another highlight as was the Wessal islands.

While never anchoring for more than three days at any one spot due to crocodiles.

So absolutely no swimming as those things scare me more than sharks.

Many more adventures to be had around Asia in the coming months.

Cheers

Nige.

Picture one exiting the Rip. I went through at low tide it was tight at it’s narrowest.

Picture two, Stinky keeping a watch on an island just in case.

From: E. Jerry Jones
Sent: May 18, 2020
To: John Curry
Subject: hydrovane

Aloha John,

We had your Hydrovane installed late last year and love it. Any suggestions on how to preserve it when not in use other than lubrication, canvas cover perhaps? We sail regularly and use our mechanical auto pilot and only use the vane on longer distance trips.

Best,

Jerry

———————————————————————————————-

From: John Curry
Sent: May 18, 2020
To: ‘E. Jerry Jones’
Subject: RE: hydrovane

Hi Jerry

Good to hear from you.

As always to keep the girl (or is it a boy?) clean, soap and fresh water are good to rid it of any salt or grunge build up. No greasing or oiling with substances that are likely to collect dust. Liberal and periodic spraying with WD 40 is good enough. The aluminum castings would like a spraying with a corrosion inhibitor to keep them looking pristine. Yup, and even no special attention seems to be OK. One exception is to get the vane out of the sun. The fabric reaches old age fairly quickly.

Cheers

John

—————————————————————————————————

From: E. Jerry Jones
Date: May 18, 2020
Subject: RE: hydrovane
To: John Curry

Yes I remove the fabric cover and the rudder also when not in use. We call it Chung Pau but please don’t ask why. He works as you know extremely well in heavy air. Next time I use the Hydrovane I’ll try and remember to send you a couple pics.

Thanks Jerry

From: Jay E.
Sent: April 26, 2020
To: Will Curry
Subject: Support

Aloha Will,

I just wanted to say thank you for all your support. I know I probably called you a handful of times while installing my Hydrovane. Avalon has been the best crew member yet working 24\hours a day out steering everyone. I also like that I don’t need to feed her and she doesn’t drink the last beer. It was 1680 nm down to Panama and I’d say she steered 1500. Light winds, heavy winds on all points of sail she held a tight line.

Thanks again,

Jay
S/V Wandersurf

Walt Lloyd
Catalina 42 Mk 1

Since my recent installation, just before the Covid 19 shutdown, I’ve taken one shakedown sail with the Hydrovane as I’m readying my boat for cruising and I always singlehand. On the trip out the wind started light at 5 to 8 knots and to my surprise the Hydrovane sailed the boat beautifully. By the afternoon, upon approaching the island, the winds had increased to a steady 16 to 20 with an occasional gust of a few knots more. The Hydrovane was again a champ. I tweaked the sails a couple of times and adjusted the vane a few times but for the most part I just laid back and enjoyed the weather and the relaxation. A week later on the return to LA the wind was a pretty steady 10 to 12 and I basically just set the Hydrovane and let it be, except I couldn’t help watching it constantly in awe at how efficient it was. I can tell that I will need to build up my library, as the Hydrovane has taken a lot of the work away from me leaving me with plenty more time to read. Thanks for the advice and great service.

Walt Lloyd

From: Randy Dinger
Sent: March 24, 2020
To: will@hydrovane.com
Subject: Accolades

Will & Sarah

We are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in route to Hawaii. Not our first choice, but that is a long story.

Our Hugo (the hydrovane) has been most impressive. 20-30 knots in 10’ seas and just keeps on slugging through it. We are so happy. And so are our fridge and water maker. Because they run anytime they wish.

Hope all is well with your family.

Randy & Shellie
S/V Moondance

From: Alex Mansfield <a.p.mansfield@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2019 5:54 AM
To: John Curry; Will Curry; Sara Curry
Subject: Hydrovane performance and installation on Moody 376 Twoflower

Dear Hydrovane team,

It’s been a few months now since we installed our Hydrovane, which has given us some time to test its performance on our Moody 376. And we can say that we are very happy with the performance and usability of the Hydrovane.

We have used in on various passages between Gibraltar and here in the Canaries, via the Algarve and Madeira, and found it to work well in a variety of conditions, from handling gusts and squalls, to steering us downwind in light airs. We would certainly recommend the Hydrovane to anyone looking to install a wind vane on our boat like ours.

However, the installation itself we found extremely challenging and frustrating, taking the two of us seven long days. We would like to share with you some of the difficulties we faced along with some feedback that we hope could make the experience easier for other Hydrovane customers in the future.

Problems during installation

We found that there were more constraints in the ways that the joints could move than we had realised from the materials we had read in advance – for example, the constraints on the angles that the joints can rotate through. These constraints eliminated a lot of the ideas about how to mount it – in fact we realised there are only a couple of possible ways a Hydrovane could be mounted without changing the original fittings. This left us mounting in one of the ways used by a Moody 376 before in the proposal you sent us. Some diagrams, animations or videos showing these constraints might have helped us have better ideas and get our expectations right from the start.

The above is important because it also affects the parts that are actually needed for mounting. In our case, even though we mounted the unit in the same ways as illustrated in the proposal, we still found that two of the parts we bought from you were not the right size.

Firstly, the H bracket pad was not thick enough to make the wedge shape required to get the shaft vertical given the constraints of the H bracket itself and the shape of our hull. We would have required at least a 35mm thick pad.

Secondly, we needed one longer strut for the A bracket, of 88cm i.e. 8cm longer than the shipped 80cm. Given that we ended up mounting the unit in the same way as shown in the proposal (and on several other Moody 376s we have encountered), we would have thought you would have been able to inform us or at least double check with us about these sizes in advance.

To bring that all together, without guidance from you and without knowing about the constraints, I’m not sure how we ourselves would have anticipated these problems before ordering the parts from you. Perhaps for future preference you can make a note of these issues in case you are preparing an order for another Moody 376 or similar boat?

Finally, the teak pads you supplied already had holes drilled for the bolts. However these holes were not perpendicular to the surface of the pads, and the spacing between the holes did not match the spacing of the bracket castings. This caused us a number of headaches – in particular, as we used the actual brackets and mounting pads to guide us drilling the holes through our hull, this alignment caused us to drill holes at the wrong angle

Surely it is possible to improve the drilling of these holes? Otherwise we believe it would be best to leave the pads without any holes drilled to prevent any confusion.

Ideas for installation

Overall our installation was quite challenging because we also had to deal with shaping the outside pads in very tight spaces and filling the very uneven interior surface of the hull. However we found some techniques that worked well for us that we thought might be interesting to share with you too (see also the attached photos).

In order to shape the pads to the hull, we extended the idea you give in the installation guide of ‘holy-stoning’ the pad onto a piece of sandpaper stuck against the hull. We attached the pad to a palm sander using double sided tape and a large piece of velcro. Using this and pressing against some very coarse sandpaper on the hull made short work of shaping the pads, even in very tight corners with barely any space to move the pad. Despite many people saying that shaping the pads is one of the most time consuming aspects, with this method, this took no time at all!

In order to get flat, perpendicular surfaces for the backing plates on the inside, we used a filling compound and moulded it using the actual backing plate and cheap sacrificial bolts. In order to keep these clean from the filling compound, we covered the back of the backing plate with grease and a sheet of cling film, and wrapped the sacrificial bolts in PTFE tape. We then applied the filling compound and bolted everything in place. Once it was cured, and in no rush, we could still easily remove everything and clean off the PTFE tape and cling film to get a good finish.

Overall then, we thank you again for making this great product and for being so responsive and supportive, and we hope that with our feedback you can improve the experience still further for future customers. For us, we look forward to many miles ahead under sail and Hydrovane.

Best regards,

Alex & Angie

SY Twoflower (Moody 376) in Tazacorte, La Palma

From: Dana Markle
Sent: January 6, 2020
To: ‘Will Curry
Subject: Alma Feroz – Hydrovane

Will,

We finished our installation of the Hydrovane on our Dufour 412, Alma Feroz last week. Saturday we took it on a trial run. We started out on a broad reach with 6 knots of wind. The Hydrovane performed flawlessly. Later in the afternoon the wind picked up to 13 knots and we were at that point sailing close hauled. Once again the Hydrovane performed flawlessly. I can’t express to you how pleased we are with Hydrovane.

The next trip to Catalina Island we will get some video on the crossing as well as some nice still shots with the beautiful island in the background.

Thanks,

​Dana J. Markle

From: svfayaway@gmail.com
Sent: November 25, 2019
To: will@hydrovane.com; irene@hydrovane.com; john@hydrovane.com
Subject: So happy!

Good Morning from halfway between Antigua and Bermuda! Had a chance to install the unit while waiting for weather window in Bermuda. Piece of cake.

We left St Georges last Thursday on heavy (25kt) 2-3m following sea. Our electronic autopilot soon wanted a break, and stopped working. Instructions said to try on a nice day upwind. We did the opposite. Took about 5 minutes to get it working well. So far we’ve had just about all conditions and I must say this unit works very well indeed. Steers much better than us, and certainly better than the latest garmin autopilot. It’s quiet, and uses no power.

Thanks so much for getting this out to us on short notice. We are very grateful to have this well-engineered unit aboard!

one question… the vane sometimes hits the solar panels if there a sudden change to conditions. Usually an adjustment keeps this from being an issue. Is there a shorter vane we can use, or perhaps I can modify this one?

[A: If the vane makes contact with your solar at the end of its deflection it does not effect performance.  You can put a piece of rubber on the solar panel where it makes contact.  We do have the stubby vane assembly which is 12 inches shorter than the standard vane.  Perhaps you can send a photo showing the contact point and I can see if its worth switching vanes.}

thanks again!

Chris & Kelly Jacques

SV Fayaway

Photo: Beating across the Atlantic on our Wauquiez Pretorien 35