Your experience of Wind Pilot vs Hydrovane

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cliffdale

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I've spent sometime researching and I really do not have a preference for each system.

For Med cruising, light winds etc, which system will operate best at slow speeds?

I asked the local boat yard about fitting the hydrovane but he said the boat will need to be going above 5 knots for it to work effectively.

Not sure if this is true but your experience using wind steering in light winds will be helpful!

Cliff
 
Maybe sticking my neck out here, but not sure of the value of windvane steering in the Med. The majority of your passage making is likely to be motoring or motorsailing when an autopilot is much more suitable.

Windvanes are also a PITA when mooring stern to, which is the main mooring method.
 
Hiya.
The one Ive sailed extensively with is Hydrovane. Usual Atlantic circuit, there and back to Caribbean.

Very impressed, easy to use. Reckon ours will work right down to a couple of knots boatspeed, bit more care with sail trim is all.

Big advantage is the rudder is there for emergencys and can be used, as we do, with a tiller pilot if motoring in light airs.

Good luck with your choice!
 
Tranona said:
Maybe sticking my neck out here, but not sure of the value of windvane steering in the Med. The majority of your passage making is likely to be motoring or motorsailing when an autopilot is much more suitable.

Windvanes are also a PITA when mooring stern to, which is the main mooring method.
Click to expand...

See my post about tiller pilot.

Hardly ever go stern to wherever I have sailed in Med. Its a privacy thing. Just do it for practice.
 
cliffdale said:
I've spent sometime researching and I really do not have a preference for each system.

For Med cruising, light winds etc, which system will operate best at slow speeds?

I asked the local boat yard about fitting the hydrovane but he said the boat will need to be going above 5 knots for it to work effectively.

Not sure if this is true but your experience using wind steering in light winds will be helpful!

Cliff
Click to expand...

I have used both, my folks have a Hydrovane on a heavy displacement long keel cruiser, I have a Windpilot Pacific on a Co32, both work well if set up correctly and are well made.

In my experience the Windpilot will continue to work in slightly less wind than the Hydrovane but there is probaly only a couple of knots (of wind speed) in it.

The Windpilot is lighter in weight and the whole unit (less the transom bracket) can be removed easily.

The Hydrovave does have one very stong selling point, it can be used as a secondary rudder. On the flip side fitting and removing the hydrovane rudder can be a fiddle and is much easier with two people. Having the rudder in place can affect steering a bit to you need to keep that in mind.

With the Windpilot I stop the boat when coming into a port, lift the servo-paddle up, tie off and then motor on, it takes all of 15 seconds.

I have no connection other than having used both options. Last year I did about 2500 offshore miles on my Windpilot.
 
Tranona said:
Maybe sticking my neck out here, but not sure of the value of windvane steering in the Med. The majority of your passage making is likely to be motoring or motorsailing when an autopilot is much more suitable.

Windvanes are also a PITA when mooring stern to, which is the main mooring method.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind I have to get to the Med and back. I have completely renewed the Autohelm as the old one was playing up a bit.

The reason for wind vane system is partly that I don't fancy going all electric across Biscay.

Cliff
 
Just last week I finished fitting mine but have yet to use it in anger. Like you, I looked at several options in detail before coming down in favour of the Hydrovane.

For me it is an essential piece of kit as we head off in April for a circumnavigation and whilst there are two autopilots on board, I am a little bit paranoid about relying on electronics. Both systems have merit and I felt that there was little between them after I weighed everything up.

I decided on hydrovane for the additional comfort of having an auxiliary rudder and having no control lines to the main rudder to worry about. Also the additional stability experienced by locking the main rudder was something mentioned to me by others who have far more experience with the system.

The final clincher was the level of service during the pre sale process. Hydrovane were efficiently attentive and very helpful with all my queries. I just got a good feeling from them.

Installation was straightforward and was accomplished on my own with swmbo required every now and then to hold something or other while I checked from every angle.

I won't get a chance to test it anytime soon as the sails are off the boat being repaired/serviced etc so hopefully someone will be along who has more direct experience. However any users I spoke to were gushing in their praise, but then the Wind Pilot users were equally happy
 
I take your point about getting there, but our Windpilot in the Med was close on useless. We persevered with it for a while but gave up in the end and sold it. On Atlantic and North Sea coasts it was excellent but the wind was just too shifty in the Med to justify it. I now use a Tillerpilot and recently bought another as a spare, just in case.
 
My comment would be that I have met people who have lost the rudder on Hydrovanes. Do not know why this should happen.

Also it is not easy to lift the rudder. I Use my monitor a lot even on short trips but manoeuvring with the rudder down (when I forget to lift it) is a PITA. Particularly in reverse.

Benefit it HV can be offset so can be positioned to allow stern access.
 
Either of them can be driven by a small push-pull tiller autopilot. Useful when the wind is too gentle but you are happy to drift along.
That way you have a backup for the big autopilot and it can steer a compass course when required.
Just make sure that the connection to the wind steering is at a point where the tiller pilot can extend over it's full stroke.
My autopilot packed up halfway across the Atlantic so the rest of the way was all Windpilot.
'New' boat has an untried Hydrovane.

What size is your boat?
 
In general the HV would be better with two wheels/rudders and centre cockpits or stiff wheel steering systems that would absorb much of the vanes energy or sensitivity.
...which is either interesting or 'lucky' for HV as I am not sure that centre cockpits, multiple wheels and rudder set ups were around when the HV was introduced.

In theory the HV castings will ( IME) withstand a harder strike by reversing yachtsmen or errant harbour walls, excluding the rudder blade which of course is exposed when fitted..
Whereas the WP is neater and simpler to remove completely from the stern and stow aboard..
Either is a very fine piece of equipment fitted to a variety of vessels and is, at the end of the day, resistant to electrical failures.
So...I would let ease of installation influence choice of type!
 
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Hydrovane for me, but as Vyv says you won't use it much if at all in the med.

Go to the Caribbean instead and get your moneys worth :D
 
There's one thing that all servo pendulum systems do that is unique to them, and that is 'yaw damping'.

If you're in a quartering sea, or any other situation that induces yawing, the servo paddle picks up the lateral movement of the stern and applies a correction to the helm, long before there is any change in the apparent wind angle. The correction is as immediate and powerful as any good human helmsman and adds a layer of sophistication to the performance of servo pendulum gears which isn't possible with more simple set ups like the Hydrovane.
 
That is a very valid point about quartering seas..I am surprised no one bothered to produce a really robust full size version of the Navik as its trim tab could move to the slightest changes..really neat sensitive design there..
By and by Mustafa did make something like that but as with HV the rudder did not hinge up.
I built for myself a hinged rudder version and spent aimless ( actually aim spot on) hours at sea watching it ' magically' cope with tradewind seas trying to slew the boat round. I am convinced we ( I) sailed further and faster because of its effectiveness day on days runs...mind you I think I got to mark 5 before I was happy to go offshore with it:D
 
If you could find a second hand lift up version of the aeries that was made by franklin you can lift the whole lot clear of the stern in under a minute. I have one which i chose so i could remove for racing
Bit heavy but really strong
 
>My comment would be that I have met people who have lost the rudder on Hydrovanes. Do not know why this should happen.

If the pin or the rings at each end of the pin holding the rudder corrode and fall out then the rudder is very heavy and will sink. Which is why you see Hydrovane owners tie the lifting handle hole to the pushpit. It 's also why Hydrovane owners check the pin and rings regularly, so it doesn't fall off, and the rope attachment is back up. Obviously those whose rudders fell off weren't aware of all that, which surprises me.
 
I would say it's an awful lot of money to spend on something that's really for crossing oceans. If I was you I would get a second autopilot in the form of a tiller or wheel pilot. That's what we did on our last boat - even used it for an atlantic circuit.
Having said that, we actually do have a hydrovane on our present boat and what a fantastic piece of kit it is.
 
KellysEye said:
>It 's also why Hydrovane owners check the pin and rings regularly, so it doesn't fall off, and the rope attachment is back up. Obviously those whose rudders fell off weren't aware of all that, which surprises me.
Click to expand...
Surprises me too as I think it was in the original fitting instructions (c1993) to fit a rope strop JIC.

Happened to me once - found the rudder trailing behind on the rope. After that I put a long bolt through with a locknut on the end - problem solved :D.
 
phantomlady said:
I would say it's an awful lot of money to spend on something that's really for crossing oceans. If I was you I would get a second autopilot in the form of a tiller or wheel pilot. That's what we did on our last boat - even used it for an atlantic circuit.
Having said that, we actually do have a hydrovane on our present boat and what a fantastic piece of kit it is.
Click to expand...

Not sure why people keep saying this. I engage my servo system anytime I'm going to be on a tack for more than a minute or so. I do it from my normal seating position and takes a few seconds!
 
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