Can the Hydrovane manage my 20 ton boat as well as a servo pendulum system?
Yes – at least as good or in most cases better! Let me explain……… In order for a servo system to be effective at all on a big boat it does need a certain configuration. The ideal is tiller steered with well balanced spade rudder in an aft cockpit very near to the transom. Any corruption of those ideals produces limits of performance as boat speed decreases. If you have a self steering system you want it to function in typical conditions – light to moderate winds from aft of the beam. Fast boat speed is ideal for a servo system. Depending on the inherent friction in the system there will be a certain point, as apparent wind speed declines, when it cannot cope. An old circumnavigator, member of our club, was raving to me about the performance of his servo system – “spectacular” he told me. Then I asked how it was in light airs. Immediately he said “must be 20 knots of wind” – that was for downwind sailing – his 33 foot boat needed 15 knots of apparent wind for his servo system to work! A
