Raytheon Autohelms

[Guest]

Very close to buying a Raytheon Autohelm 4000 as my wife doesn't enjoy steering (have tiller). Does anyone hae anything either positive or negative to say about this gear? They seem to cost about £600 and that's a fair bit of dosh for something which will not get extensive use.

Particular questions include:

1. Do they manage well in rough (ish) weather.

2. Do they use excessive current?

3. Are they reliable?

4. Are they tough enough for a 10m boat which is a little heavy on the helm?

Thanks in advance!

email: humperdinck@humperdinck.co.uk

 

[davel]

I have one of these fitted to my 33ft wheel steered boat.

Wouldn't rush to recommend it. It tends to oversteer when sailing upwind (zig zag) but much better off the wind. I guess I could spend a bit more time trying to set it up better (there are a number of options) but it's been out of commission more than I'd have liked - the PCB on the head unit has had to be replaced twice ! On the plus side, there's a two year warranty so the replacements haven't cost me anything other than time. The local Raytheon dealer has been very helpfull in replacing the units but the last replacement took about 8 weeks to arrive !

As I said, not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Dave L.

 

[Guest]

By way of a different review. We have a 4000 wheel pilot on our Rival 38 and it has taken across the Atlantic plus the Channel quite a few times.

You do need to set the unit up for your type of boat otherwise you'll get the over/understeering effects of the previous post.

In five years the only repairs have been due to the control unit being cracked then leaking and an overhaul this year. I have been impressed by both the technical assistance from Autohelm and their turnaround.

In terms of how it copes with rough weather, it depends. If the wind is for'ward of the beam no problems in winds and seas up to F6/7. It has problems in a big (10ft+) following sea but I've yet to meet an autopilot (or windvane) that doesn't. We usually handsteer when it we encounter these conditions. My philosophy is that it is a cheap autopilot and that it is unreasonable to expect the performance of the £2K plus brands like the 6000 or 7000.

All in all for a cheap autopilot I'm impressed.

Chris Enstone, Rival Spirit

 

[tom_bishop]

I confirm Chris's experience of the After-Sales Service: excellent.
Only use the tillerpilot when motoring due to lack of wind, so no particular comments re your other questions.

 

[pugwash]

My 2000 mysteriously turned out to be full of fresh water the other day. Must have been rain. Reason still unknown but no harm was done.

 

[hove2]

I've had one fitted to my Dufour 36 for 2 years. It was usless to begin with, no matter how or who set the various paramaters and also software upgrades.
I was told two things
1 fit a rudder reference unit (this I have just done, it helps and has improved matters)
2 my boat is on the limit for the 4000 and I need a unit that drives direct on to the rudder. I'm still considering this.

With a following wind or sea it is still dodgey but otherwise works seems to work reasonably well. However since fitting the rudder reference unit I have not had chance to try it in winds in excess of F5.
One unusual feature is that according to the instruction book it is supposed to "learn" and improve its course keeping ability. Mine seems to do the opposite, ie set a new course it starts off well but then gradually gets worse.
It certainly is not as good a Autohelm tiller device I once used on a 31ft Gib Sea.

 

[Guest]

So not exactly a ringing endorsement for Raytheon?

So the Autohelm 4000 can be a bugger to set up, is not always watertight, and has unreliable control units. But even at £600 nobody has said they regretted the purchase!

The two year warranty sorely tempts me, but I am concerened about the list of bad experiences.

 

[saltydog]

I had my sailmaker make a little waterproof jacket, with window as the seals do not last for ever.

 

[bobnewbury]

Neither do the Walruses..

But I don't see why we should start making little jackets for them. Where will it all end - multilegged oilies trousers for the squid?

That way lies madness.

 

[Guest]

The ideal situation for those who hate steering

All the electronic autopilots of suffer from excess current draw and probably more important they can only react after the boat is off course. In general they are wonderful things when a motoring but as they steered to a compass makes them a reliable when sailing the average older cruiser.
Yes I know the Open 60 used them but they are designed to be driven by them .
Are the ideal combination in my opinion is a servo pendulum self steering system eg Aires for sailing (the pendulum will react to cease before the boat is off course) and a autopilot for when motoring.
Apart from going in and out if port we hardly touched our tiller.
To reduce current draw you can even connect the autopilot to the Vane of the self steering gear .

 

[Guest]

Re: Neither do the Walruses..

Thanks for making me laugh Bob - I can't shift this mental image of a giant squid with multilegged oilies now!!!! I've even put a sowester,a beard and pipe on him now!

 

[johndf]

Re: So not exactly a ringing endorsement for Raytheon?

Fitted a ST4000 wheelpilot on my Jeanneau 34 last summer. I've not tried it in anything more than a 5, and that offshore. but it's been fine so far. I did have to play with the rudder gain, as the default setting of 5 is much too high for my boat, other than when motoring in a flat sea. It is much more steady with a gain setting of 2 or even 1. The first time I adjusted it, I tried increasing the gain to 9, which made for a very interesting, but not very straight course.

 

[roger]

Hump. We have an Autohelm ST2000 bought in 1994. It has now worked for something like 2000 miles. We neither like steering Badger for long. We dont find the current drain a worry. It does fill up part of the cockpit and uses up valuable storage space in harbour.
We wouldnt be without it.
Our main problem is that we have been unable to access the calibration facility to change the gain. As a result we have difficulties steering northerly courses at 60 degrees north. Im not sure who are Autohelms owners now. I think its Simrad. We noticed some condensation in the window last summer but ist dissapeared after warm winter storage.
On the whole though its really needed especially as Badger needs a constant hand on the tiller.