I had researched the subject of a wind vane system for several years because of its reputed ability to steer the yacht without use of the autopilot, thereby reducing electrical consumption and providing a backup system to the main rudder.
It all sounded very good but my doubt was based on lack of evidence that a Hydrovane or equivalent could work on my particular make of yacht. The reason being that the Hydrovane would have to be severely displaced from the centerline of the yacht because of the large drop-down transom gate.
However.....When I spoke to the Hydrovane sales representative (at the Southampton Boat Show) he assured me that an offset vane rudder would work well because it operates in 'clear water', meaning that it is not positioned behind the main keel or rudder, so will have more 'purchase' on the water flowing past.
So I bought the unit in mid 2017 and it was delivered to Grenada where we had the yacht stored, and we received it in November and December 2017. Shipment was a disaster from the factory in UK. They sent wrong parts on several occasions, but thats another long story which I wont cover here.
There are no instructions on how to install these units on any yacht.. Instructions just don't exist..
The solution is to work it out yourself, and this is done with pen, paper, measuring stick, plumb line, and looking at pictures etc.. All hit and miss.
The best option is to set it up with 2 inch PVC tubing in place of the provided stainless tubing, this will allow the necessary 'trial and error' method to see where the attachment fittings can be placed. Its not easy because of the size of the fittings, brackets and tubes, and the allowable angles at which the brackets can be fitted will restrict the whole installation.
The plumb line is to ensure that you get the Hydrovane main spindle tube in a vertical position (when the boat is sitting fair in the water).
So it took me two full months to get the installation done, and that was not because I was lazy. It was due to the shipping mistakes and the lack of installation instructions. You have to go by pictures on the Hydrovane website to work out the installation possibilities. The necessary fiddling around was another cause of my delay of installation.
When attaching the brackets to the transom and helm seat (yes..) I had the areas reinforced with GRP doublers to beef-up the attachment points. I also bought some thick aluminium plates also as reinforcement. We didn't want the thin transom skin to flex and crack...
Finally the operational test was done during our long downwind sail from the island of Grenada to the ABC Islands (Bonaire specifically) and on to Columbia, San Blas and Panama mainland.
Results..... It didn't work..!
Reason...It was not able to steer the yacht by itself. As soon as the yacht wandered off course the vane rudder deflected to correct the direction but the size of the vane rudder is completely inadequate to bring the yacht back on course. I tried it time and again with no result.
So I am sitting with a 6000 GBP unit on the back of my yacht that hasn't done what the manufacturer and sales rep said it would do. Not good, but I will try it in less difficult conditions because the route I just covered was a bit hectic due to large waves, although nothing too extreme.
I am hoping that my further cruising in the Pacific will allow me to get this Hydrovane to eventually do what they promised it would do... We will see and I will post results of Facebook and elsewhere.
My intention in this blog is to warn others yacht owners that may want to buy this unit, to think twice and then think again. Don't just believe the salesman's promise that this works.
Remember I am talking about an OFFSET installation on a fairly large yacht (Oceanis 48). I am sure it would work when placed on the centerline of a 38 foot yacht, and you can see on the Hydrovane website that people have commended the system.. But nobody with an offset installation on a larger yacht (45 foot plus) has come forward with a positive note.
Another difficulty I was burdened with was the height of the Hydrovane flag (vane).
I have a solar arch on the back of my Oceanis 48 so all along I had asked for the extra length of spindle pole so that the vane would fly in clear air. This never happened, I didn't get a long-enough pole and so I had to displace my solar panels to allow the upper part of the vane and flag to rotate at least part of the 360 degrees as it has to.
Time and time again the sales representative assured me that the all round rotation clearance was not necessary even though it states it in the instruction manual.
So this was again the hit-and-miss system of planning the installation that took place.
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| This was the only 'installation' instructions I got from Hydrovane. Three red circles where the feet pads should be attached. |
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| Using 2 inch PVC tubing which was not easy to find.. |
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| This is the complete installation with using the PVC. After this the steel tubing has to be cut to precise length and the transom attach points beefed up. |
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| Yacht sitting in the water. This is when you ascertain that the vane is perfectly vertical. |
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| The finished product.. |
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| A long way offset, so the vane rudder has little effect.. Particularly if you are on a heel and the vane rudder is partly out of the water.! |
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