Which Autopilot

[wazza]

I’m going to buy a new autopilot, may well get it from Raymarine but I’m not sure which one. I have a Najad 343 roughly 7 tons. Which one would you all suggest out of Raymarine Wheelpilot EV-100 or Raymarine Autopilot EV-200 Linear drive? There is a large difference in price. My sailing area is a offshore but not ocean passage making yet. It may well never be ocean passage but seems silly to buy the cheaper if it cannot cope. Any experiences.? Many thanks in advance for you input. Warren

 

[coopec]

I’m going to buy a new autopilot, may well get it from Raymarine but I’m not sure which one. I have a Najad 343 roughly 7 tons. Which one would you all suggest out of Raymarine Wheelpilot EV-100 or Raymarine Autopilot EV-200 Linear drive? There is a large difference in price. My sailing area is a offshore but not ocean passage making yet. It may well never be ocean passage but seems silly to buy the cheaper if it cannot cope. Any experiences.? Many thanks in advance for you input. Warren

I really think you should get them to advise. They will look at the specifications of your yacht and work out what one of their range will handle the load. This is one for the experts.

 

[wazza]

I really think you should get them to advise. They will look at the specifications of your yacht and work out what one of their range will handle the load. This is one for the experts.

They did, but I was wondering what the panels of experts on here had to say. A salesman is a salesman after all.. ?

 

[dunedin]

Linear drive. NOT wheel drive

 

[john_morris_uk]

Linear drive. NOT wheel drive

Completely agree. MUCH better and more robust.
Our autopilot is into a separate quadrant on the rudder stock. I have high confidence in it.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Definitely go for the linear drive.

 

[andrewAB]

I am in process of upgrading tired ST4000+ wheel pilot to new linear drive on my Bene 343. Wheel pilot only good for light airs and motoring. Garmin Class A drive (made by Jefa) linear drive and Pypilot Tinypilot cost is a hundred pounds more than EV100 wheel unit.

 

[Goldie]

+1 for Linear Drive to the quadrant. IIRC the Najad 343 has cable steering so if a cable fails, the Linear Drive still Leaves you with an autopilot.

 

[TernVI]

Wheel drive is a cheap solution for motoring and light airs flat water.
If that's all you want, it's fine. Spend the change on a spinnaker.

Whether the wheel pilot is powerful enough has a lot to do with the design of the rudder as well as the displacement etc.
If you can steer with a couple of fingers, the wheelpilot should be fine.

If you are going to sail seriously under autopilot, you want a proper below decks job.

 

[pvb]

As others have said, a linear drive is the one to go for. The Raymarine linear drive has hardly changed in specification for decades, and it's probably their most reliable bit of kit. When I sold my last boat, the original Raymarine linear drive was 24 years old and still working perfectly.

The Jefa linear drive has some interesting features, I have one on my Bavaria, but it's probably still too new to know how well it will stand up to long-term use.

 

[ithet]

When I needed to upgrade the ST4000 wheel drive on my Beneteau 331 I fitted an Evo200 with linear drive. I decided that an autopilot would be something used on every trip, and for me is a safety device allowing me to to confidently leave the wheel in all conditions. The result is excellent and has held a downwind course at wind angle170 degrees in a rolling Needles Channel with no gybe. Also the silence of the linear drive alone is worth the cost!

 

[Graham376]

Our previous 35ft boat came with wheel pilot and it was very slow and under powered in lively conditions, changing to type 1 linear drive made a very big difference. As said above, if cable steering fails, the linear drive on the quadrant still works.

 

[Laysula]

We have a wheel pilot on our Bavaria 350 weighing 5 ton. I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Quandary]

The EV100 only works with the tillerpilot or little wheeldrive, for a proper ram or hydraulic drive you need at least the 200.
( I have an EV200 package for sale, everything but the drive, the display head is the 70R (rotary ) version. unused and still in boxes 35% off,
PM me if you want details.

 

[V1701]

When I needed to upgrade the ST4000 wheel drive on my Beneteau 331 I fitted an Evo200 with linear drive. I decided that an autopilot would be something used on every trip, and for me is a safety device allowing me to to confidently leave the wheel in all conditions. The result is excellent and has held a downwind course at wind angle170 degrees in a rolling Needles Channel with no gybe. Also the silence of the linear drive alone is worth the cost!

You'll get a decent price for the one you remove on ebay, surprising how well used TPs, WPs & especially windvane steering gears fetch...

 

[wully1]

Linear drive every time... miles better than those whirry-clicky-clacky wheel efforts. In my humble opinion of course.

 

[ithet]

You'll get a decent price for the one you remove on ebay, surprising how well used TPs, WPs & especially windvane steering gears fetch...

Yes I did.

 

[wazza]

Thank you all for your input. Linear seems to be the way forward. I want something that I can rely upon.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Personally, i would fit a Garmin system and i'd use the Class B mechanical linear drive. This is a compact drive for boats up to about 24 tons, comes with built in rudder feedback sensor and costs about £300 less than the Raymarine type 1 drive which then needs a £200 rudder feedback sensor as well, so ends up costing £500 more than the Garmin drive and you have the hassle of fitting the feedback sensor.

 

[chubby]

I had a wheel drive on a 7 ton motor sailor: cheaper and easier to fit with less engineering BUT only good for coffee and putting out fenders, noisy and less good steering, swapped for a below decks Raymarine pilot, brilliant, quiet, reliable, steers better than me, best move ever, I went for the rotary drive because that fitted my boat but most have a linear drive and yes needs more engineering but you would never regret it.