Plastic Classic Forum

Anyone have experience with hydrovane self steering gear on a Triton or on other boats?

I have a friend who installed Hydrovane on his Bristol 29.9, sailed it from CA to Mexico and across the Pacific and reported no problems. He did say the weight was about 90lbs *in the water* as listed on their site, which means + 25lbs for the rudder, so close to 115lbs total dry weight.

That's a significant weight hanging off the transom of a Triton but I see on the hydrovane website they have fit them to similar sized boats and some even smaller so it seems not so bad. The Triton has a vulnerable rudder so having the emergency steering with the hydrovane rudder is a plus.

Thanks, I didn't know they were so heavy but I liked the emergency tiller feature and thought is was powerful enough to steer a Triton.

I saw a nice one on ebay but someone beat me to it. The current bid was $511. While I was waiting to bid, some made the seller a private offer and bought it. Didn't know you could do that.