Tiller Pilot Raymarine EV-100 vs Pelagic

alexrunic

alexrunic

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I'm looking for a tiller pilot for my Nic 31 displacement around 5,800 kg

I was thinking the Ramarine EV-100 but have seen the Pelagic https://pelagicautopilot.com

Has anyone any experience of either of these or any further recommendations would be great fully received.
 
I have a EV100 on my Contessa 32 (4500kg + gear) that is raced solo so I need a decent pilot that I can trust. After a few hiccups and some FOC support from Raymarine is works very well and appears to be robust. I suspect it's motion sensors are a bit more advanced that the Pelagic.

That said I have also heard good things about the Pelagic that I think is a little cheaper but may be harder to integrate with other electronics.

While I'm not going to change I would like to know more about the performance of the Pelegic. Unfortunately you are unlikely to get a realistic comparison by someone that has extensively used both.

I hear nothing but good things about the latest generation of B&G pilots.
 
The Pelagic website is odd; it seems to have no specs for the tiller drive. How powerful is it? What sort of boats can it cope with?

Aside from that, the Pelagic system looks like it's been cobbled together from the parts bin, with ugly boxes and mounting hardware. Personally, I couldn't live with an autopilot control which used the spelling "Standbye"!
 
I fitted the EV-100 Wheelpilot (same electronics, different drive) to our Marcon 34. I am increasingly impressed with it. We have just come back from Guernsey with a difficult quartering sea. The EV-100 coped remarkably with the conditions, whereas the previous ST 4000 wheel-pilot would have not managed.
 
The Av 100 I have is dangerous. If the boat gets knocked off course by a big beam sea in rough weather it cuts ut & reads " calibration error" rather than just gradually brings the boat back on course. In doing so the tiller will be to one side & the boat will then sail in a 360 degree circle if I cannot get on deck to disconnect it in time.
if motoring a bit slow & the boat gets knocked off course & the tiller reaches the stops it does not wait for the boat to work back on course but cuts out & the display reads " tiller pilot stopped". Once again as the steering gains control the tiller is held over & the boat motors in a circle If I cannot get to it in time, ie if working on the bow getting gear ready to anchor etc.
This is unlike its smaller brethren the TP2000 which will eventually bring the boat back on course- but is far less powerful so not really suitable for my boat
 
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Georgio said:
I have a EV100 on my Contessa 32 (4500kg + gear) that is raced solo so I need a decent pilot that I can trust. After a few hiccups and some FOC support from Raymarine is works very well and appears to be robust. I suspect it's motion sensors are a bit more advanced that the Pelagic.

That said I have also heard good things about the Pelagic that I think is a little cheaper but may be harder to integrate with other electronics.

While I'm not going to change I would like to know more about the performance of the Pelegic. Unfortunately you are unlikely to get a realistic comparison by someone that has extensively used both.

I hear nothing but good things about the latest generation of B&G pilots.
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Do b&g have an equivalent tiller pilot? I only saw more expensive ones. Assuming the Raymarine one is about 1200.
 
Daydream believer said:
The Av 100 I have is dangerous. If the boat gets knocked off course by a big beam sea in rough weather it cuts ut & reads " calibration error" rather than just gradually brings the boat back on course. In doing so the tiller will be to one side & the boat will then sail in a 360 degree circle if I cannot get on deck to disconnect it in time.
if motoring a bit slow & the boat gets knocked off course & the tiller reaches the stops it does not wait for the boat to work back on course but cuts out & the display reads " tiller pilot stopped". Once again as the steering gains control the tiller is held over & the boat motors in a circle If I cannot get to it in time, ie if working on the bow getting gear ready to anchor etc.
This is unlike its smaller brethren the TP2000 which will eventually bring the boat back on course- but is far less powerful so not really suitable for my boat
Click to expand...

it sounds to me as though you don't have it set up correctly for your boat, possibly not responding quickly enough. it took me some time fiddling with the setting so get it working really well for my particular boat - all boats will behave differently so some tuning is required
 
Georgio said:
I don't think B&G have an cockpit mount tiller drive but you could almost certainly use the RayMarine or Pelegic arm as they are simple electric rams. Probably worth checking with B&G though.
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In effect they do as Simrad is also owned by Navico and they share a lot of technology with B&G. They make 3 sizes of tiller pilots, and the largest (TP32) is more powerful than Raymarine, but is still the all in one rather than separate control and ram. Very much cheaper than the EV though.
 
Georgio said:
it sounds to me as though you don't have it set up correctly for your boat, possibly not responding quickly enough. it took me some time fiddling with the setting so get it working really well for my particular boat - all boats will behave differently so some tuning is required
Click to expand...

I have tried just about every configuration possible & it will not move the tiller fast enough to respond to a beam sea "broach."
Oddly enough my Aeries will & whilst it still get pushed off course it is not so much but at least it then pulls the boat back on course
 
Try increasing what it calls the "hard-over" time. I had to increase mine (which I found counter intuitive) to increase the speed of response on the tiller. I *think* this works in a similar way to rudder gain on previous generation pilots. It's worth a try.
 
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Georgio said:
Try increasing what it calls the "hard-over" time. I had to increase mine (which I found counter intuitive) to increase the speed of response on the tiller. I *think* this works in a similar war to rudder gain on previous generation pilots. It's worth a try.
Click to expand...

Pretty certain I have may have done that already, I have the rudder on "performance & it chatters away all the time & then cuts out after a while. i assume it gets a bit tired working so hard!!!! -but will try again next time i use it. thanks
 
Tranona said:
In effect they do as Simrad is also owned by Navico and they share a lot of technology with B&G. They make 3 sizes of tiller pilots, and the largest (TP32) is more powerful than Raymarine, but is still the all in one rather than separate control and ram. Very much cheaper than the EV though.
Click to expand...

Yep, aware of those product but they are unlikely to be coupled to a fixed, multi-component Pilot which just need a "dumb" ram or similar. The TP32 may more powerful that the Raymarine equivalent tiller pilot (ST2000+) but is unlikely to be as strong as the standalone Raymarine tiller ram used for the Evolution pilot (which is essentially the same ram used for the old 4000 and SPX pilots).
 
Daydream believer said:
Pretty certain I have may have done that already, I have the rudder on "performance & it chatters away all the time & then cuts out after a while. i assume it gets a bit tired working so hard!!!! -but will try again next time i use it. thanks
Click to expand...

No problem, it took me a lot of fiddling to get it right but was/is worth the effort.
 
I have a Simrad TP32 installed on a tiller steered Sadler 34. I have found it to be pretty effective but in heavy weather would always prefer to use the Aries wind vane gear which is also present. On a recent single handed Atlantic crossing I reckon that the steering was done about 90% of the time by the Aries, 8% by the tiller pilot, principally in very light or flukey winds, and 2% by hand.
 
Georgio said:
Yep, aware of those product but they are unlikely to be coupled to a fixed, multi-component Pilot which just need a "dumb" ram or similar. The TP32 may more powerful that the Raymarine equivalent tiller pilot (ST2000+) but is unlikely to be as strong as the standalone Raymarine tiller ram used for the Evolution pilot (which is essentially the same ram used for the old 4000 and SPX pilots).
Click to expand...

Thought that is what I said.
 
What happened to the Raymarine GP tiller pilot ? Aiui, that was a more powerful version of the 4000 which formed the basis of the EV100's tp ?

Boo2
 
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