True Stories

Famous Sailors

Jimmy Cornell's Aventura on Europa Circumnavigation

Andy and Liza Copeland

"We can't tell you how impressed we are with Hydrovane. After 40 years with various windvanes we regarded them as temperamental in anything but the steadiest conditions. Hydrovane has changed all that. She is adaptable, tolerant of squally conditions, reliable to a remarkable degree. We particularly love the independent rudder and absence of lines leading back to the cockpit, a huge disadvantage of the servo-pendulum model we had before. Didn't know what we were missing!"

Circumnavigators, authors of the 'Just Cruising' series of books - www.aboutcruising.com - Liza received the Ocean Cruising Club's 2003 award for 'the writer who has done the most to foster ocean cruising'

Liza and Andy Copeland on 'BAGHEERA' - Beneteau First 38

ANDREW BRAY - EDITOR OF YACHTING WORLD

"I was singularly impressed with ....... how well the Hydrovane coped with the awkward following seas ....... The Hydrovane was worth its weight in gold and neither ate slept or argued."

Andrew Bray, Editor YACHTING WORLD - On the performance of his Hydrovane in an Atlantic crossing (ARC)

 Andrew Bray's DASH - Hydrovane as a cover girl   

LIBBY PURVES - BROADCASTER, WRITER

"A gold medal to the 15 year-old Hydrovane"

".......Now, perhaps, you should know what happens to a singlehander when his Jonah wife joins as crew for the return leg ... Twenty minutes after crossing the start line we had trashed four pieces of gear ..... But since the month of the AZAB (Azores And Back Race) tested our cruising boat harder than a whole normal season, you might like to know the heroes and villains among the gear: not as a formal gear test, but for anecdotal interest. A gold medal to the 15 year-old Hydrovane, which steered 1,200 miles even when blearily adjusted in the howling dark by watchkeepers tangled up in temporary wheel lashings. It went to Antartica with the last owner, and was refurbished two years ago......"

From Libby's regular column 'THE CRUISING LIFE' in Yachting Monthly, October 2003 Libby Purves - BBC Broadcaster, writer, and columnist for the UK Yachting Monthly magazine on her assessment of equipment after the '2003 Azores and Back Race'

Libby Purves

Paul Heine on their Biscay 36 'AYESHA' - Libby joined Paul for the AZAB return trip

JOHN GUZZWELL

"Hydrovane gave me wonderful service aboard 'Endangered Species' in the '98 and '02 Transpac Singlehanded races and the return voyages home. This is a well engineered and reliable unit I would choose to use again."

John Guzzwell, then 72 years old Author of "Trekka Round the World" Poulsbo, Washington, USA (originally from the Channel Islands, UK, then Victoria, BC, Canada) August, 2002

John Guzzwell on 'ENDANGERED SPECIES' - at start of 2002 Trans Pacific Singlehanders Race - John then aged 72

John Guzzwell's fame began in his early 20's when he built his 21' Trekka and then sailed it singlehandedly around the world in a four year circumnavigation from 1955 to 1959. He told his story in his book "Trekka Round the World" which was first published in 1963 and re-published in 1999 by Fine Edge Productions. He was also the crew member with world-renowned sailors, Miles and Beryl Smeeton, when they pitch-poled 'Tzu Hang' off Cape Horn in 1957. Described as the "summa cum laude of salts", he is known as one of the world's greatest singlehanded sailors.

Endangered Species is a Guzzwell 30 designed and built by John. It displaces 5,000 lbs. The Transpac Singlehanded Race goes from San Francisco to Hawaii. He, then 74 years old, had been preparing for the 2004 Vic-Maui Race (2,400 miles from Victoria British Colmbia to Maui, Hawaii) which he was intending to double-hand with his son Jonathan - and a 3rd crew member - the Hydrovane. The race committee set an insurance requirement that prevented their entry!!

YACHTSMAN OF THE YEAR - LESLIE POWLES

"I felt she could be steered by any of these gears, and settled for one that was compact and neat with a direct drive onto a balanced rudder. This was the beginning of a long association with Hydrovane, one I have never regretted. Indeed, the independent rudder one day would save Solitaire."

From "Hands Open - Twice Around the World Single Handed East-to-West and West-to-East"

Published by Kenneth Mason, 1987

by Leslie Powles - 1981 Yachtsman of the Year

Leslie Powles Photo taken by Leslie in a storm - near the Horn - old Hydrovane with wooden vane

The Windvane Self-Steering Handbook

"....... all the Hydrovane owners I've met have expressed pure satisfaction with the system."

"This is a unique design, achieved by some brilliantly simple engineering that harnesses the direct force of the wind to power an auxiliary rudder. The secret is a specially balanced rudder that responds easily to impulses from the airvane. Unlike experiments with airvane-controlled steering a century ago, the Hydrovane (successfully) gets its power from a particularly long horizontal-axis airvane. The operator sets a controller at one of three settings, then inclines the vane to compensate for changing wind strength, thereby modifying the vane's leverage on the rudder. In case of main rudder failure, the Hydrovane doubles as an emergency rudder."

".......in a class of its own and manufactured by only one company. Known as the Hydrovane, this auxiliary rudder system employs reduction linkage to convert impulses from a very large airvane into steering power at the partially balanced rudder without harnessing the water's force. Rather than embracing Marin-Maries's design, which was loosely based on the same broad concept, British inventor Derek Daniels found a more compact way to engineer a set of linkage that can be adjusted for different rates of mechanical advantage, depending on wind speed.................

Tom (Bridgman - has a 20 year old Hydrovane on his 40 foot ketch Axe Caliber) said that on one occasion while the boat was at anchor, he tried to turn the rudder manually with the windvane set in about 10 knots of wind. He was astonished to find that no matter how hard he tried, he could not budge the rudder; such was the force as amplified by the reduction linkage."

Bill Morris

Bill Morris, a native of California, USA, Author of the recently popular "The Windvane Self-Steering Handbook" published by McGraw Hill - 2004. This book is highly recommended as "everything you wanted to know about windvane self-steering" says Bruce Walker in the Oct. '04 edition of Australia's Cruising Helmsman magazine.