Hydrovane Install: The Test Of “Patience” And What We Learned

Sunday December 14, 2025

The main point of this post is to share what we learned and what we would have done differently if we had known better.  There’s so much that’s hard to know until it’s in your face as each Hydrovane install differs slightly because every boat stern is different and every boat has different clearance requirements.  We were installing a single strut “E” Hydrovane, as we have a classic stern that slightly overhangs.  We have a “Stubby” vane to account for the low clearance.

This is the number one most important aspect that we wished the installation manual was clearer about.  There’s one statement in the manual around it, but there are multiple aspects you must consider.  We knew to some extent that we had minimal clearance as we had to measure the width of our Atlantic arch and height from the water line for Hydrovane to evaluate whether it would work.  This is also how Hydrovane determines which size shaft you will need, but we weren’t  warned about having installation location restrictions with it, and let’s face it, it had been 6 months since we received it.  Hydrovane encourages off center installation on the stern for several reasons, so this is the only thing that was in the back of our minds. 

We made the mistake of installing the “H” bracket too close to the port side trying to clear our swim ladder, and later realized we would not have enough clearance to the arch, even with the stubby vane.  Clearance dimensions are not inside the installation guide.  You must go onto their website for the drawings, and unfortunately, they are not super simple to understand.  Once we realized it wouldn’t work, we used the clearance drawing to our best ability, and it seemed we had little choice but to move it to dead center on the stern. 

Unfortunately, we had bedded the backing plate in epoxy, so this was not retrievable and now we have a permanent backing plate inside the stern to remind us of our mistakes…. Past that just a few more holes in Reverie’s stern, no big deal.  Her backside already needs work! 

Aspect #2: Motor Clearance –

When we spoke to Hydrovane and showed them where we moved it, they mentioned the backstay could be in the way of the motor.  They didn’t mention what exactly the backstay could restrict us on, so we tested it by temporarily mounting the motor on the shaft prior to installing our “E” bracket to ensure we would clear.  Everything cleared at the time, but we later noticed the shaft locking pin couldn’t be installed from the bow side of the Hydrovane, which is how it’s designed.  Essentially, the only option was to insert it from the stern side, and we would have to remove the plastic cover to do so.  This isn’t terrible, but it’s not ideal. Our solution was to cut a notch in the plastic cover with a Dremel.

While you can adjust the shaft height to some degree to avoid this, our Atlantic Arch was impeding our ability to do this.  In the end, our shaft is 3” into the water (recommended 1-2” out of the water), as this is the only option for clearance with the Stubby Vane in our scenario.  Maybe the short shaft would have served us better, or the XT-Vane, but being in Antigua, there’s no easy way to replace the parts.  Therefore, due to clearance, we don’t have any wiggle room to move the motor up and further away from the backstay and we are stuck with the not so ideal pin situation and our shaft in the water. It’s already growing a beard. We have to come up with a boot solution to prevent this from happening.

Aspect #3: Rudder Tiller –

While this isn’t essential to the operation of the Hydrovane, having a secondary back up rudder is a dream for any sailor. This means if our main rudder were to fail, we could still steer the boat.  Given we already know we need to do rudder work at some point in the future, this is a huge bonus.  Unfortunately, when it came time to install the rudder fork, we learned that the backstay was impeding our ability to get the tiller fork in the motor housing. It comes with a short handle on it for you to attach a customer tiller, or the one they sell.  We ended up removing the handle from the fork to get that piece installed in the housing, but now we have no handle or way to use the tiller.  Unfortunately, our height clearance is still impeding maximum function. 

You can fabricate a tiller to go around the stay, but we are still a bit challenged as it is barely clearing the toe rail on top of the backstay issue.  Seems like another boat unit or two and a skilled metal worker could do the trick.  Uhghh low on the list…  More things to figure out later.  Patience…

The Shaft:

Being in Antigua, we were a little limited in what we could obtain for the installation.  We have a great marine store in Jolly Harbor, but the 2” outside diameter PVC that Hydrovane tells you will simplify the installation was nowhere to be found.  This would have greatly improved everything.  Be prepared! The medium shaft is ~30lbs and you end up moving it a lot!  My dream after day 2 of manhandling the shaft, was that Hydrovane had included this in the kit.  Moral of the story, ensuring you have the PVC will make your life much easier!  This also becomes important for the single strut measurements.  In the end playing with dummy tube vs heavy grade stainless would have been a game changer. 

Brackets -The Wedges: 

Shaping the “H” bracket wedge to the hull was not much of a challenge.  The trick of taping a piece of sandpaper to the hull and then sanding the teak pad by moving it up and down along the stern was relatively simple to do, just a bit brutal in terms of the amount of energy required in the hot sun. Drawing a grid on the back of the pad helps to ensure you are hitting the entire surface. In the end it fit the hull perfectly.  We had created a notch for the chainplate with a handsaw and chisel.  The notch for the chainplate was almost like a guide for shaping to the hull.  It worked well!  The “E” bracket was a completely different story.  The angle and shape required of the wedge to match the angle of the strut bracket was a mystery that was not easy to solve.

Tips on the “E” bracket:

Bracket Pad Angle: 

This remains a bit of a mystery to calculate the angle required.  A carpenter’s angle finder could help, but we didn’t have one.  Hydrovane suggested playdough or foam to make a form to mock your pad off of, but neither of those things were easy to come by here.  In the end I eyeballed the angle and took the grinder to it while it was clamped to the dock swim ladder.  This helped, but it became quickly apparent that it wouldn’t be thick enough. 

While you have some wiggle room between where you place the bracket, which could essentially minimize or maximize your wedge thickness, there’s only so much.  Especially if you want to keep your brackets farther apart for the most stability, you will likely want to plan for a thicker pad.  Better have more than not enough.  The strut bracket and stern bracket can be flipped in different directions to match the angle better, but even in the best configuration we were left with this large angle. 

Bracket Pad Thickness:

Because the pad we received from the Hydrovane kit was not thick enough for the required angle our stern created we had to come up with a way to make it larger.  We solved this issue by with thickening West Systems epoxy slow hardener with their High-Density Adhesive Filler.  This would then fill the gap behind the original teak pad to make up the difference.

One issue we did have was that we couldn’t get the teak wedge to sit flush during this operation to the bracket.  Therefore, we had to create a second smaller wedge out of a piece of thin teak I had floating around on the boat.  This wedge acted like a shim and was smaller and centered to push the teak pad toward the bracket flush.  At this point we had the bolts through the stern already, to hold everything in place.  Once we felt good about it, it seemed best to address the interior backing plate thickened epoxy first.  We used the bag trick in there again and got the interior backing plate on with the temporary nuts and let it cure overnight. 

The next day, we covered the back of the boat in plastic for protection and injected the thickened epoxy (natural peanut butter thickness) into the cavity created by the shaped teak pad + teak wedge.  It worked relatively well but was slightly stressful as it’s tough to inject thickened epoxy, but it was runny enough the syringes we had on the boat worked well.  Good thing I had them from another drill and fill project in our cabin top wall!

It would have been much simpler if the teak wedge was double the thickness it came to us as, but the angle would still be a challenge.  Consider making your own pad wedge if you don’t want to mess with epoxy and you have a classic stern or a set up that will require a big angle.  Otherwise, order Hydrovane’s wedge kit, or make your own wedge shims. 

Tethering and working over the water: 

The idea of rigging a tarpseemed impractical.  You must be there working on the stern and close to it, so it would just get in the way.  Our paddle board became our working platform, and honestly given the situation, it was perfect.  Maybe being stern into the dock would work too, but I think the tide and dock height could make it more difficult if it’s not a floating dock.  We couldn’t even contemplate trying since Reverie doesn’t back up well and these are fixed docks. 

We gathered as much lanyard material as we could.  Being rope access techs, made the idea of working over the water, no different than working at height.  Tether everything…. Even with that mentality, we still lost 1x ratchet and 2 x 17mm sockets in the drink.  We barely eked out the final torquing with our one remaining 17mm socket and a box wrench.   Every piece / tool that could receive a lanyard we rigged with a clove hitch or scaffold knot with some blue tape as back up.  We used our arch and stern rail as tie off points.  This doesn’t entirely eliminate the drop potential, but it mitigates it greatly.