oldmanofthehills
Well-Known Member
Having now acquired a boat with wheel steering in pilot house plus tiller at the stern I investigated autohelm possibilities.. The wheel is fairly small and not readily replaceable by a larger on so it is hard to fit a wheel pilot. Most tiller pilots offer no remote function except via a computer network which I dont have, dont want to install and cost lots, and in our fine British weather, i.e. rain, the pilot house is the preferred steering position.
However I heard of a Californian company called Pelagic and it was highly recommended in a long ago Forum posting, and this uses car key type dongles to give some remote function. So I ordered one at considerable cost.
When it first arrived it twitched like mad and it was an absolute pain to set up with parameter selection status given by a small LED flashing in morse code and a mildly unhelpful instruction manual. So I complained and was told that the separate main control unit must be at least a metre away from the tiller drive ram due to possible magnetic interference (unlike the integral ram of most tiller pilots). So I drilled more holes in our beloved boat and tried again. Still no joy.
As we were due to make a shorthanded 30 hour crossing to Brittany I bought as a backup a cheaper french tiller pilot as I considered voyaging without such aid would be tiring to the point of risk.
The remote dongles are a good idea, slightly impaired by having no indication as the whether unit is in auto or standby without a clear view of the master unit, but still most useful.
The tiller ram is very strong and robustly constructed. The mounting however is very poorly designed as the horizontal hinge is 50mm above the vertical pivot socket producing considerable leverage on it. The socket is about 20mm deep so a tiller force of 70kg is multiplied by a factor of ((50+20)/20) =3.5 giving 245kg force on the bronze insert and the mounting block on the hull which thus distorts, comes loose and incidentally results in lost motion. The force on the pivot pin itself is also large and coupled with the vibration produced by the unit the pivot pin has unscrewed itself several times. Locktite sealant would cure the unscrewing of the pin, but only an inversion of the ram and production of a new bracket with the hinge pin at a more reasonable height would reduce the leverage strain and that is beyond the scope of a normal purchaser.
Taking several mornings out of our planned Festival of the Gulf (Morbihan) to try out the unit again not only did the unit seem to be in continual motion but the unit sometimes put the tiller hard over for no readily apparent reason if we asked for any course change. Not much fun in a crowded seaway.
As stated earlier we found the instructions hard to follow and the LEDs almost impossible to see in bright light conditions. Determining their morse code was also almost beyond us. Had the manual clearly stated that while in auto the green lights show the sensitivity setting, much time would have been saved, as we discovered that due to the complex set-tup process we were not actually saving the most fundamental setting of sensitivity. We did master the compass calibration eventually, though holding steady for 10 seconds every 45 degrees presented a challenge. I note that the rival unit merely required us to motor in a slow circle and press a button to complete. The unit does not need to know true North only enough that tacking is about 120 degrees so the process is over complex for the task in hand. However if setting up was merely longwinded I would accept that as the price to pay.
We finally got to the bottom of the boat circling in auto. If Yaw damping is set high, then the boat circles if asked to change course. If Yaw damping is set to low then the boat snakes madly and eventually the tiller pilot locks up at one extremity, and of course the boat then circles. After these spectacular failures we left Yaw damping at medium. The other parameters had little effect so we left them at medium except for sensitivity which we set at low.
However with Yaw damping and the other parameters set at medium the tiller is still in constant motion even with sensitivity at zero. Under sail alone and with wind forward of the beam the boat maintained a fair course though with much un-needed tiller motion. However tying the tiller would give very nearly as good a course so the unit is almost redundant on this course. With engine on or wind on the beam reach the unit hunted. My opinion is the unit needs a dead space / null space as others have whereby it does not respond until it is clear a correction is needed. This constant motion also is part of the problem of the pivot pin shaking itself loose.
The backup simpler french unit took perhaps 5 minutes to set up, and 10 minutes going in a circle to calibrate compass and coped well with rolling seas. My opinion is that the Pelagic unit is over complex so fails to deliver. Maybe just maybe it might suit a racer trying to stay hard on the wind but it certainly seems unsuited to passage making.
However I heard of a Californian company called Pelagic and it was highly recommended in a long ago Forum posting, and this uses car key type dongles to give some remote function. So I ordered one at considerable cost.
When it first arrived it twitched like mad and it was an absolute pain to set up with parameter selection status given by a small LED flashing in morse code and a mildly unhelpful instruction manual. So I complained and was told that the separate main control unit must be at least a metre away from the tiller drive ram due to possible magnetic interference (unlike the integral ram of most tiller pilots). So I drilled more holes in our beloved boat and tried again. Still no joy.
As we were due to make a shorthanded 30 hour crossing to Brittany I bought as a backup a cheaper french tiller pilot as I considered voyaging without such aid would be tiring to the point of risk.
The remote dongles are a good idea, slightly impaired by having no indication as the whether unit is in auto or standby without a clear view of the master unit, but still most useful.
The tiller ram is very strong and robustly constructed. The mounting however is very poorly designed as the horizontal hinge is 50mm above the vertical pivot socket producing considerable leverage on it. The socket is about 20mm deep so a tiller force of 70kg is multiplied by a factor of ((50+20)/20) =3.5 giving 245kg force on the bronze insert and the mounting block on the hull which thus distorts, comes loose and incidentally results in lost motion. The force on the pivot pin itself is also large and coupled with the vibration produced by the unit the pivot pin has unscrewed itself several times. Locktite sealant would cure the unscrewing of the pin, but only an inversion of the ram and production of a new bracket with the hinge pin at a more reasonable height would reduce the leverage strain and that is beyond the scope of a normal purchaser.
Taking several mornings out of our planned Festival of the Gulf (Morbihan) to try out the unit again not only did the unit seem to be in continual motion but the unit sometimes put the tiller hard over for no readily apparent reason if we asked for any course change. Not much fun in a crowded seaway.
As stated earlier we found the instructions hard to follow and the LEDs almost impossible to see in bright light conditions. Determining their morse code was also almost beyond us. Had the manual clearly stated that while in auto the green lights show the sensitivity setting, much time would have been saved, as we discovered that due to the complex set-tup process we were not actually saving the most fundamental setting of sensitivity. We did master the compass calibration eventually, though holding steady for 10 seconds every 45 degrees presented a challenge. I note that the rival unit merely required us to motor in a slow circle and press a button to complete. The unit does not need to know true North only enough that tacking is about 120 degrees so the process is over complex for the task in hand. However if setting up was merely longwinded I would accept that as the price to pay.
We finally got to the bottom of the boat circling in auto. If Yaw damping is set high, then the boat circles if asked to change course. If Yaw damping is set to low then the boat snakes madly and eventually the tiller pilot locks up at one extremity, and of course the boat then circles. After these spectacular failures we left Yaw damping at medium. The other parameters had little effect so we left them at medium except for sensitivity which we set at low.
However with Yaw damping and the other parameters set at medium the tiller is still in constant motion even with sensitivity at zero. Under sail alone and with wind forward of the beam the boat maintained a fair course though with much un-needed tiller motion. However tying the tiller would give very nearly as good a course so the unit is almost redundant on this course. With engine on or wind on the beam reach the unit hunted. My opinion is the unit needs a dead space / null space as others have whereby it does not respond until it is clear a correction is needed. This constant motion also is part of the problem of the pivot pin shaking itself loose.
The backup simpler french unit took perhaps 5 minutes to set up, and 10 minutes going in a circle to calibrate compass and coped well with rolling seas. My opinion is that the Pelagic unit is over complex so fails to deliver. Maybe just maybe it might suit a racer trying to stay hard on the wind but it certainly seems unsuited to passage making.
