Raymarine ST4000+ with Simrad Go9 always overshoots waypoints

[Dabam]

Hello - I have a Hunter 310 with a well functioning Autopilot (Raymarine ST4000(+?)) - not 100% sure if it's a (+) or not;

When going from Standby to Auto, the boat stays perfect on course;
When giving it a way point from the Simrad Go9, it goes straight to that waypoint and asks for cancellation once the waypoint is reached.
When setting up a route on the Simrad, then sending the route to "active" - each waypoint is being transferred to the ST4000 right on time, acknowledged there and "activated"...
The problem I have is that every time the "new" waypoint is changing course, the autopilot is not reacting for a long long time, it way overshoots the last waypoint until it finally starts to put some course correction in for the new waypoint.
I have played with the arrival circle and the max off track width (not sure the correct terms as unit is not in front of me) but nothing has helped so far....

Any help is highly appreciated...

 

[earlybird]

Not sure that it's relevant to your problem, but ISTR that when on a route, some, if not all, autopilot / navigator combos need manual confirmation of the new waypoint before actually changing course. This presumably is for safety reasons to prevent sudden, unsupervised course changes in the vicinity of other vessels etc.
Could this be a factor?

 

[PeterBoater]

I don't have my unit in front of me either but there are two or more sensitivity/speed of reaction settings that can be adjusted; one for the rudder, one for the autopilot itself and perhaps one for overall reaction time Try tweaking those. Perhaps your system has been set up to do very leisurely and gentle course changes.

 

[Dabam]

Not sure that it's relevant to your problem, but ISTR that when on a route, some, if not all, autopilot / navigator combos need manual confirmation of the new waypoint before actually changing course. This presumably is for safety reasons to prevent sudden, unsupervised course changes in the vicinity of other vessels etc.
Could this be a factor?

Thank you earlybird, but I don't recall that being an issue (but will check once back on the boat. Once the previous waypoint was reached, the next one auto-downloaded to the ST4000 and without doing anything it eventually slowly started course correction, simply waaaay too late and too slow.... as can be seen in the picture... that course was plotted without any human input...

 

[Dabam]

I don't have my unit in front of me either but there are two or more sensitivity/speed of reaction settings that can be adjusted; one for the rudder, one for the autopilot itself and perhaps one for overall reaction time Try tweaking those. Perhaps your system has been set up to do very leisurely and gentle course changes.

Thank you Peter - these are in the ST4000 I believe and I have tried tightening those up with next to zero impact on the problem... Reading earlybird's comment again, could it be that there is a "time until auto-confirmation" of the next waypoint occurs possibly?

 

[earlybird]

Thank you earlybird, but I don't recall that being an issue (but will check once back on the boat. Once the previous waypoint was reached, the next one auto-downloaded to the ST4000 and without doing anything it eventually slowly started course correction, simply waaaay too late and too slow.... as can be seen in the picture... that course was plotted without any human input...

Just looked at the ST4000+ manual. This extract from track mode use describes what I had in mind. It points out that course changes won't happen complelely automatically but doesn't entirely fit in with what you a but doere describing.

 

[Refueler]

As far as I am aware - all Autohelms will require User acceptance of change to new waypoint heading. If wrong - I stand corrected.

With OP - maybe the Autohelm is using the seastate its learnt from its previous heading along with possibly slow course change setup ? But what I find interesting is as per 'earlybird' - the comment that OP is not confirming course change ??

I know that my Autohelm (I don't have hook-up to plotter) - when I alter course - it takes a while to settle to change of 'apparent' sea state affecting it.

 

[Dabam]

Just looked at the ST4000+ manual. This extract from track mode use describes what I had in mind. It points out that course changes won't happen complelely automatically but doesn't entirely fit in with what you a but doere describing.

Thank you earlybird - it definitely does make sense what you're saying - AND I will promise to confirm and come back once I get back on the boat, which should be in 2 weeks or so.... for some reason I recall it advancing to the next waypoint on its own for one night of sailing..... (there were drinks involved, so that's what makes the judgement a little hard).... will report back...