John Flanzer
Member
I am looking to purchase a Monitor for my 384 Morning Star. Does anyone have one which they would like to sell?
Best,
John F
Best,
John F
Hi Mark,Hi John - I don't know if you've considered a Hydrovane, but I know that Stephen Ruell (username: struell) was looking to sell his Hydrovane last month.
I would have purchased it, but I already put $ down as a deposit for a new Hydrovane.
I don't want to kick off a religious war, but I ultimately decided on a Hydrovane for several reasons: 1) it can serve as an emergency tiller, 2) it doesn't use the ships steering system and thus reduces the wear on the ship steering, and 3) it can be mounted offset, so the swim ladder can stay where it is.
Perfectly reasonable people will argue that they prefer a Monitor. It's personal preference. Both have been used over many years for serious ocean voyaging in serious weather. I don't think either would be a "mistake".
If you wanted to IM/contact him, this forum calls it a 'Conversation' and it's accessible thru the little envelope icon in the upper right. 'Start a Converation'
Good luck!
-Mark
Hi Warren,As an owner of a Monitor, I can testify that all of those pluses for a Hydrovane are valid. Except, perhaps, the boarding ladder. I have had to make some serious steering repairs and upgrades due to wear. I have had a steering cable break 600 miles from shore, and the emergency rudder option (another $1500) for the monitor proved inadequate to hold a course.
I converted the ladder to one that I can hang from the side of the boat. I greatly prefer this. Especially in an anchorage with a swell, it can be quite difficult to board a dingy from the stern of the boat.
I am confident the Monitor steers the boat better, but if doing it again I would give serious consideration to a Hydrovane.
Yeah, I was looking at your photos and thinking it would be nice to do a hull painting / torpedo tube fiberglassing at the same time. I think I'm going to need to pause to save up some more boat bucks.They charged me $7200. It is really hard to get in there to work. Luckily Adavida was being painted at the time, so the overlapping glass on the outside of the hull was easily covered over with paint.
Mark,Yeah, I was looking at your photos and thinking it would be nice to do a hull painting / torpedo tube fiberglassing at the same time. I think I'm going to need to pause to save up some more boat bucks.
The monitor certainly works better upwind than downwind, and better with more wind than less. Anything higher than a beam reach in good wind, you really don't need a windvane at all, the boat will balance fine and hold a course, and even come back to it if a wave knocks it off course.Oh, on wind vanes, the Monitor words very well going upwind, but reaching and running sometimess struggles with the Morgan. We were able to balance the boat, however. For instance, as the wind piped up, we would reef the main first. Often we ran with a triple reefed main and a full 135% geona. I understand the Hydrovane expects you to set the rudder to steer and then set the Hydrovane. Not sure how that would work in conditions when the wind varies regularly. But they were used on the BOC round the world race--but with boats with greater directional stability than a Morgan 382.
Yeah, I ultimately might upgrade by replacing the Raymarine wheel unit with a CPT, but keep the Raymarine brains. The CPT seems to be the power and reliability of a below deck unit, but the simplicity of a wheel drive. Windvane mode on the autopilot works really well too, I don't want to lose that feature.I use a CPT autopilot for light wind and powering. It actually works in strong wind too. I love it. It is old fashioned belt driven, but it is silent and strong. About $1800, I think, but my 20 year old model still works. I often use it for sailing in congested inland waters where using the Monitor is inconvenient. I highly recommend it.
I have emailed them. I'll let you know their response.Warren, please remember tto talk to Scanmar about the ERudder.
Hi Stephen,I have been following this discussion and thought time to pipe up and offer that used Hydrovane for sale.
I bought Rolf Peterson's Hydrovane in 2019. Rolf separated the Hydrovane from his boat when he sold it. He described it on a thread on this board when he was selling his boat.
I followed up with him and ended up buying it. But I never installed it. At the time I had some cash and thought we would be going on much longer cruises, so I took a flyer on it. Now it seems less likely I will ever use it. I have added a CPT autopilot and that is probably as much as I need. Where we sail in Maine there are so many lobster traps that you can barely use an autopilot in many areas and having any extra rudder down in the water would only be practical on a longer cruise off shore.
Anyway if someone is interested I could resell you this one which came from Rolf, and it should be pretty much already fitted. I have inspected the parts and they seem to be in excellent condition. Rolf sold the boat with the mounting pads on the transom so you would need the make them. I'm not sure that there is anything else needed. He emailed me measurements and a few photos for the locations of those pads plus the manuals.
I haven't thought too much about the price but would like to get my $3500 back. I also paid for shipping which turned out to be a lot since Rolf didn't have a way to build a crate and had it packed at a UPS store. I could build a box and put it on a pallet but the shipping itself would be on the buyer. No warranty of course.
If anyone is interested let me know,
Steve
Mark,Hi John - I don't know if you've considered a Hydrovane, but I know that Stephen Ruell (username: struell) was looking to sell his Hydrovane last month.
I would have purchased it, but I already put $ down as a deposit for a new Hydrovane.
I don't want to kick off a religious war, but I ultimately decided on a Hydrovane for several reasons: 1) it can serve as an emergency tiller, 2) it doesn't use the ships steering system and thus reduces the wear on the ship steering, and 3) it can be mounted offset, so the swim ladder can stay where it is.
Perfectly reasonable people will argue that they prefer a Monitor. It's personal preference. Both have been used over many years for serious ocean voyaging in serious weather. I don't think either would be a "mistake".
If you wanted to IM/contact him, this forum calls it a 'Conversation' and it's accessible thru the little envelope icon in the upper right. 'Start a Converation'
Good luck!
-Mark
Interesting. We didn’t have this problem because there was a check valve before the water heater inlet.... I notice that we get very hot water from the cold water valve after running the engine. I will need to instal a backflow preventer in the coldwater feed to the hot water heater. It is backing up into the cold line to the sink. Have you had this problem?