drewstwos
Well-Known Member
LOOK MA...NO HANDS!! (THROUGH THE SOUND)
Well I did it myself. A challenge I admit, but in the end it wasn’t too difficult. I fitted an autopilot in Freebird. OK a basic Raymarine S1 wheel pilot, but I wanted one that could be connected to the GPS. I run Maptech on a small laptop, and after lot of brain hassle it worked, at least it would steer the boat on any heading I chose. I was most impressed. And in a following sea it steered a damn sight straighter than I could. Even did better than me on any point of the compass too. I did have to get the local IT genius to do the last bit of deciding which two of the last six coloured wires were the ones that sent data to the pilot. That done, Lo and Behold, it now follows a track to the next waypoint. Oh the fun I had making it go along a zigzag route,,, what a wonderful bit of kit.
But today, serious test time. I laid in a track from Port St Mary to Port Erin through the Calf Sound, putting waypoints as straight through the Sound as I could. And off we went. Not a sunny day, but what the heck, the time and the tides were right, and as we all know time and tide wait for no man, or woman for that matter.
The result was astounding. The boat went through without a twitch. Both ways. The pics were taken ccoming back, as by then I had more time to take them, the first time it was a bit of a white knuckle ride...wondering!!!!!!
I know its not too narrow, but I’m so new to all this electronic navigation stuff you will have to forgive my total OTT attitude. Me being a old paper chart navigator with parallel ruler and dividers and a lot of head scratching . When we went through the ‘swirlies’, my name for the .everywhichway. currents that try to spin small slow boats in circles, she just worked a bit harder and through we went. So here’s a few pics, and like the title of this saga, ‘’Look Ma…no hands’’
See. I told you it steered straight, the XTE showed between 0 and 5 ft off track. Yikes,,, are all these things that accurate?
I am sure all you younger boaters who take this sort of thing in your stride may be having a slight chuckle, but I don’t care, I’m just as happy with the result as….well I don’t know.
Enjoy your boating. I do even more now….. so what’s next !!!!!!
Well I did it myself. A challenge I admit, but in the end it wasn’t too difficult. I fitted an autopilot in Freebird. OK a basic Raymarine S1 wheel pilot, but I wanted one that could be connected to the GPS. I run Maptech on a small laptop, and after lot of brain hassle it worked, at least it would steer the boat on any heading I chose. I was most impressed. And in a following sea it steered a damn sight straighter than I could. Even did better than me on any point of the compass too. I did have to get the local IT genius to do the last bit of deciding which two of the last six coloured wires were the ones that sent data to the pilot. That done, Lo and Behold, it now follows a track to the next waypoint. Oh the fun I had making it go along a zigzag route,,, what a wonderful bit of kit.
But today, serious test time. I laid in a track from Port St Mary to Port Erin through the Calf Sound, putting waypoints as straight through the Sound as I could. And off we went. Not a sunny day, but what the heck, the time and the tides were right, and as we all know time and tide wait for no man, or woman for that matter.
The result was astounding. The boat went through without a twitch. Both ways. The pics were taken ccoming back, as by then I had more time to take them, the first time it was a bit of a white knuckle ride...wondering!!!!!!
I know its not too narrow, but I’m so new to all this electronic navigation stuff you will have to forgive my total OTT attitude. Me being a old paper chart navigator with parallel ruler and dividers and a lot of head scratching . When we went through the ‘swirlies’, my name for the .everywhichway. currents that try to spin small slow boats in circles, she just worked a bit harder and through we went. So here’s a few pics, and like the title of this saga, ‘’Look Ma…no hands’’
See. I told you it steered straight, the XTE showed between 0 and 5 ft off track. Yikes,,, are all these things that accurate?
I am sure all you younger boaters who take this sort of thing in your stride may be having a slight chuckle, but I don’t care, I’m just as happy with the result as….well I don’t know.
Enjoy your boating. I do even more now….. so what’s next !!!!!!
