True Stories
Report on New Rudder
FIRST REPORT FROM LARGER BOAT ON PERFORMANCE OF NEW RUDDER - 15 Ton Roberts 44
"Ernie the vane has developed a new self confidence that is quite amazing! It's as if he's saying "OK guys, I've got new muscle now, just click my knob, and leave the rest to me..."
BACKGROUND - We recently sent one of our new rudders to long-time cruising friends who at the time were in Equador. We want reliable feedback to gauge the difference between the old and new rudders. That kind of comparison can only come from a bigger boat that has experienced long passages with the old rudder. We first met John and Linda Hurlburt in New Zealand in 1973. He, like us, has had long absences from the sea but is now back fulfilling another dream. The Hurlburt's boat, MADHATTER, is a Bruce Roberts 44 rated at 13 tons but now certainly 15 tons or so. John explains his findings -...........
John, I have waited to write you back in order to accumulate more experience with the new rudder. There were two changes I made to the Hydrovane in Ecuador:
1. the new rudder, and
2. I made up a 1.25 inch thick teak spacer for the lower vane mounting. This brought the unit into true vertical, whereas before it was "leaning" forward at the bottom.
In my view, the new rudder is a real winner. We are now 6 days and 800 miles out of the Galapagos en route to Fatu Hiva. As well, we used the vane on the 500 mile sail from Ecuador to the Galapagos.
To back up a little, since we left Vancouver, the vane has performed generally well. There were two situations where the boat would occasionally "get away" from the vane: light air downwind sailing, and broad reaching in boisterous conditions. Usually, a little attention to sail balancing would solve the problem. The new rudder seems much more forgiving of boat imbalance. It seems more powerful. It has handled everything to date with aplomb, including the above two problem situations. In fact, Ernie the vane has developed a new self confidence that is quite amazing! It's as if he's saying "OK guys, I've got new muscle now, just click my knob, and leave the rest to me...". We know when we turn things over to him, we no longer have to worry about boat control.
To answer your questions:
1. Downwind, light apparent wind: there is not enough power to turn the rudder with the knob on middle setting even with the vane vertical. However, with the knob far left and the vane vertical there is plenty of power- a benefit I think of the new bigger, better balanced rudder.
2. Heavy weather- no problem controlling the boat now. It's best with the knob in middle setting, and vane inclined about 70%. For example, right now we are broad reaching in 15-18 knots on the port quarter, confused sea, and Ernie is handling it beautifully.
Anyway, it's a glorious Tradewind day here at 4 43 S, 103 13 W. The sun is out, the SE wind is blowing 15-18, and Madhatter is romping west under genoa & mizzen. Flying fish everywhere. Yesterday we were becalmed and we all went for a swim. Water 27C (remember Pendrell Sound?- same temp). It was eerie, floating there looking down into the deep blue of the abyss. What a neat experience.
We have used our light air gennaker more than we ever thought we would. What a great sail. Many times we would have gone nowhere without it. A last minute purchase by Linda- thank the wind gods she did. Tell everyone at Bluewater to have one on board.
The Galapagos was incredible. Hope to see you guys and tell about it.
Love to all the Currys, John & Linda
MADHATTER - Bruce Roberts 44 - 15 tons - in Morro Bay, California
THEN THIS FROM THE CREW:
"At 0900hrs this morning the main steering quadrant failed--it sheared in two places and is need of a good welder. We rigged up the emergency tiller which we centred, and are steering using the Hydrovane. "
Ahoy all,
At 0900hrs this morning the main steering quadrant failed--it sheared in two places and is need of a good welder. We rigged up the emergency tiller which we centred, and are steering using the Hydrovane. This works very well considering--we are using the manual bilge pump handle as a tiller and we're steering from the "hen bench". It's much the same as steering a small outboard motor in a dinghy. Before the incident,we were having a fine sail straight downwind before a 25 kt following breeze,
but have reverted to motoring for ease of handling.
So we are now proceeding directly to Atuona for repairs, and expect to arrive tomorrow in the late afternoon. Fatu Hiva will have to wait for another time.
There are a numerous things that are on our side. Firstly, the Hydrovane makes steering much more manageable, instead of trying to steer from the bowels of the vessel. Secondly, we are only 145nm from a safe harbour, and most probably a good welder/mechanic. Thirdly, and most importantly, the failure occurred well away from land where we could sort things out in an orderly fashion, trying different steering techniques until we found the best combination. And lastly, after a wicked night of strong squalls, the skies cleared this morning in fine tradewind fashion. Landfall tomorrow morning.
The Crew of the Goodship MADHATTER
.............MORE FROM JOHN
"Hydrovane saved our Bacon!"
From: VE7JFH@Winlink.org [mailto:VE7JFH@Winlink.org]
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 5:38 PM
To: john@hydrovane.com
Subject: Hydrovane saved our Bacon!
Just a quick note. We are in unbelievably lush Hiva Oa, 22 days from the Galapagos. WOW! Anyway, the last day, our steering quadrant broke. We don't know why. We were able to fit the emergency tiller, and lock the main rudder. We then steered Madhatter from the after deck using the Hydrovane for the last 30 hours into Hiva Oa. Another success story for your product!
I am however worried about flexing of the transom at the attachment point of the lower Hydrovane mount, which was quite notible hand steering. I think the solution will be an A-bracket.
Another plus- our bilge pump handle fit perfectly into the Hydrovane tiller, allowing us to extend the tiller, which was critical to successful hand steering. Was this planned?
We will write in more detail later.
John
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