AUTOPILOT SURVEY

[alessandra]

Raymarine 6000 with gyro just won't control boat well in difficult conditions - quartering sea and broad reach to down wind. By the way - data of chart should have percentage of unreliable as percentage of total number of that particular autopilot not of all autopilots, i.e. divide by number unreliable by total number of those pilot type owners, not of all pilot owners.

[Keegan]

Originally Posted by alessandra

Raymarine 6000 with gyro just won't control boat well in difficult conditions - quartering sea and broad reach to down wind. By the way - data of chart should have percentage of unreliable as percentage of total number of that particular autopilot not of all autopilots, i.e. divide by number unreliable by total number of those pilot type owners, not of all pilot owners.

That is not possible with the Cruisers forums software. The polling ability has limitations on how you can structure a poll.

Keegan

[windseeker2]

I own a 47 ft. Dutch built vessel. It is a steel Colin Archer. The steering is Whitlock Mumba system. I purchased the vessel with Whitlock Autopilot. The Fluxgate compass died so I replaced the system with SIMRAD. I did a lot of research before I purchased the SIMRAD. SIMRAD used to be Roberts. I worked on a lot of BIG boats and they all had Roberts Autopilots. The Whitlock Autopilot used a DC Motor direct coupled to the Mumba system which is rack and pinion drive. The SIMRAD coupled to the DC Motor without any modifications. It has worked flawless for three years. Both in San Francisco Bay and traveling north to Juneau Alaska in off shore waters. We had an ALPHA onboard first when we moved the boat out of San Carlos, Mexico to San Francisco. It was dumb as the man said but it drew far less current than the SIMRAD does. I like my SIMRAD and that is what counts. Thanks JL

[windseeker2]

I own a 47 ft. Dutch built vessel. It is a steel Colin Archer. The steering is Whitlock Mumba system. I purchased the vessel with Whitlock Autopilot. The Fluxgate compass died so I replaced the system with SIMRAD. I did a lot of research before I purchased the SIMRAD. SIMRAD used to be Roberts. I worked on a lot of BIG boats and they all had Roberts Autopilots. The Whitlock Autopilot used a DC Motor direct coupled to the Mumba system which is rack and pinion drive. The SIMRAD coupled to the DC Motor without any modifications. It has worked flawless for three years. Both in San Francisco Bay and traveling north to Juneau Alaska in off shore waters. We had an ALPHA onboard first when we moved the boat out of San Carlos, Mexico to San Francisco. It was dumb as the man said but it drew far less current than the SIMRAD does. I like my SIMRAD and that is what counts. Thanks JL

[Brent Swain]

Sometimes it is the boat that won't steer properly. On my first boat, a pipe dream designed by Francis Kinney, the hull balance and directional stability downwind was so abysmal that any autopilot would have been fighting a mighty battle to keep her on course.
Moving the rudder six feet further aft in New Zealand was a huge improvement, but the hull balance was still bad.