Auto Pilots

garethuk

garethuk

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22 Jun 2005
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Hi guys,

I'm a long distance cruiser rather than just a bay tripper so i'm looking around for a good auto pilot system. She currently has another system but that was disconnected when the rudder system was converted to hydrolic.

I have a fly deck and also controls down in my saloon and would like auto pilot to be engaged down below.

I've seen a few of theese in other boats

http://www.yachtbits.com/raymarine/st3000_wheel_pilot.php

but it doesnt look the best with motors sticking from everywhere...

any suggestions?

Thanks,

G
 
You need one of the new breed of hydraulic pilots, Raymarine 6000, or similar. Most of the bigger marine electronics people have them. try a google search.
 
Depending on the make and age of the existing autopilot it might be possible to a kit to get it to work the hydraulic rudders.
 
ST3000 is designed for raggies, and, like its slightly bigger brother, the ST4000 is designed to control the wheel itself rather than the rudders. Furthermore they are designed for short trips rather than long distance work.

Their bigger bretheren S1/S2/S3 are designed to work directly to the rudder. If your rudder is controlled by cables, they have a linear drive. If your system is hydraulic then they have an appropriate drive for that. These systems are much more robust and have a much better brain to control the vessel. They are designed for long distance work. The S1 is the least powerful, and S3 designed for much bigger boats.

If you want the best, then the S1/2/3 can also be bought with accelerometers to inform the brain how fast the boat is turning, and thus how much wheel is required to regain course - these are now considered to be more efficient than a human and have shown 3% gains on fast multihulls .
 
Hi

I have the S1 fitted on my Prestige 36 and it works very well and as all the rest of my kit is Raymarine they interface very well all you need to do is keep a lookout and the rest is done for you.

John
 
What's your boat?
We have just had a raymarine 6001 fitted to our Atlantic 38, interfaced with the existing Garmin 232 chartplotter and am very impressed. We have just crossed from Cherbourg to Poole at around 15 knots entirely with "George" at the helm, in slight to moderate seas and cross track error never exceeded 0.03 nM and most of the time exactly on track. A 65 mile leg, which brought us straight to the Poole fairway buoy I used as a wpt. If I hadn't taken the helm manually we would have hit the buoy.Very easy to use and very reassuring.
 
This has been covered ad nauseam in past posts,but you do realise that slavish adherence to X track error is wasteful of fuel and time,or had you vectored tide flow into equation?
 
I have a TMQ autopilot on my boat here in Sweden. I think this brand is more for the seriuos mariner then the Raymarine. I know they sell them in UK to. I'm very pleased with the performance.
 
Be careful having a system that is 'set' only from one helm position.


A friend had similar and he kept watch from the F/B - needed to alter course popped below and his sallon door had become locked with the key on the saloon side................interesting laundry problem ensued
 
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