Wheelpilot

[NauticalZ]

Hi,
Any recommendation for a wheel pilot for a Catalina 30? I’m going to be in Canada and saw there is a boat show coming up. I’m looking at the Raymarine EV100 but open to recommendations!

Raymarine Wheelpilot

EV-100 Wheel Pilot | Boat Autopilots | Raymarine

 

[Tranona]

That will be suitable and is the only one currently available. Its competitor the Simrad WP 32 went out of production a few years ago.

 

[diverd]

It works well on my moody 30. The remote control is a real help and the raymarine one is good I have had one for a few years now and almost never touch the control panel, its position is not perfect for my needs now, but the "low cost sailor" one from on line is superb, and 2 hand set and one sender unit for £125 ish is incredible value. I ordered them to see what they are liek, and i have to say i am properly impressed.

 

[Laminar Flow]

For North Americans there is still the CPT wheel pilot available. It is considerably more robust than the Raymarine. While the electronics on the Raymarine are excellent, the drive unit has received mixed reports.
I have experience with the CPT, as well as the Raymarine.

 

[jwilson]

I replaced an older ST6000 series Raymarine wheelpilot with the current Evo base model - P70 head, ACU computer and EV-1 heading sensor. Whilst the bolt-on Mk II wheel drive itself is identical, the new Evo electronics are very much better at sensing and learning boat movement, and will actually anticipate the needed wheel input a bit when the boat is rolling. I suspect a CPT unit will have a similar performance in this respect to the old Raymarine setup, that would not do this - it would not correct anything till the boat was off course.

The Raymarine wheel drives though are pretty rubbish - not very powerful, has a quite fragile plastic gearwheel connecting the motor to the (again plastic) drive rollers and belt. It also makes annoy clicky-clacky noises in use. It is however small and neat, fairly easy to repair, and you can get the spares.