Follow up on yesterday's ST 1000 tiller pilot thread

[dtripp]

Before fitting a new tiller pilot suitable for boats to 34' on a 23' yacht, doesn't it make sense to shorten the distance it has to extend by attaching it closer to the rudder? I'm assuming that it'd be exactly half extended when the tiller is straight ahead. Wouldn't the thrust power be adequate, and it result in quicker responses and less battery drain? David.

 

[pvb]

I reckon if it were that easy to improve the response time and current draw, the manufacturers might have figured it out and provided a table of differing dimensions for different sizes of boat. So the answer's probably "no" - follow the manufacturer's instructions.

 

[Tranona]

An ST 1000 is not suitable for a 34' boat - but is for a 23'. As pvb says follow the instructions and it will work fine.

 

[Iliade]

The tiller pilot's 'ideal boat' is specified on expected tiller load at a given distance from the fulcrum. If you have a balanced rudder you can risk 'underspecifying' your TP, but no doubt if it fails you'll get no back up from the manufacturer.

It is also important to make some effort to balance your rig.

The key issues are really response time, based on a certain lever arm and whether the boat's helm overwhelms the TP. having the TP sufficiently close to the rudder shaft is very important or the PID control can become unstable, i.e. the boat will oscillate.