Autopilot

[steved]

Over the weekend and on a recently purchased boat thought I'd test out the Cetrek autopilot. Cruising at around 18 knots pressed the auto button, the gauge showed the system was adjusting a bit to port then to starboard. However, the movements got more and more severe to the point where the steering became so fierce it was uncomfortable and the thing had to be switched off.

I cannot believe this is normal, unfortunately I do not have a manual, is there some sort of adjustment that can be made on autopilots?

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[Deleted User YDKXO]

Usually, you have 2 adjustments on an autopilot, a Response adjustment which determines how far off track the boat can go before the autopilot tries to correct it and a Gain adjustment which adjusts how far the rudder moves for each correction
Sounds to me like you need to increase the Response setting but its definitely worth getting a manual to see how this is done

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[lyc]

Cetrek Autopilot manuals can be downloaded <A target="_blank" HREF=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BroadsandEastcoastBoating/>Broads & East Coast Boating