New generation Raymarine A/P's

[DotDun]

The EV-1 constantly calibrates itself as a background task. I assume watch COG from the GPS.

I haven't got much long passage experience with it yet, but so far it works well.

[Badsanta]

I felt the installation was easy and straight forward and the calibration was done at the dock. No more than push a button and turn the wheel fully left, fully right and center so the pilot knows how far it can rotate things and done.

[Captain Bill]

I've had mine since last July and gone from NC to Mqine and then to the keys and Bahamas. It definitely steers better than my old ST5000+ but does have one issue that I don't like and that is excessive steering when it gets off track by even small amounts. An error of .01 nm (60 ft) causes a 30 degree turn towards the track. This is excessive and even dangerous in a downwind situation. Ray marine says they are working on improving the track mode function. My local dealer says he has made multiple reports of this problem but no fix has been forthcoming. It seems to me to be a software problem. The old ST 5000 would not make what I would call a radical turn to reacquire the track until .1 nm off track which seldom occurred. Running into a cross current coming out of an inlet or something can easily set you off track 60 ft. I'm wondering if some programmer somewhere didn't slip a decimal point and programmed the thing to react like it was .1 nm off track when it was only .01 off. Even of the program is appropriate for power boats, such radical turns for small errors should be disabled for the sailboat settings IMO. For Tom Clancy fans or ex submariners, my autopilots nickname is now Crazy Ivan.

[toddedger]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

I've had mine since last July and gone from NC to Mqine and then to the keys and Bahamas. It definitely steers better than my old ST5000+ but does have one issue that I don't like and that is excessive steering when it gets off track by even small amounts. An error of .01 nm (60 ft) causes a 30 degree turn towards the track. This is excessive and even dangerous in a downwind situation. Ray marine says they are working on improving the track mode function. My local dealer says he has made multiple reports of this problem but no fix has been forthcoming. It seems to me to be a software problem. The old ST 5000 would not make what I would call a radical turn to reacquire the track until .1 nm off track which seldom occurred. Running into a cross current coming out of an inlet or something can easily set you off track 60 ft. I'm wondering if some programmer somewhere didn't slip a decimal point and programmed the thing to react like it was .1 nm off track when it was only .01 off. Even of the program is appropriate for power boats, such radical turns for small errors should be disabled for the sailboat settings IMO. For Tom Clancy fans or ex submariners, my autopilots nickname is now Crazy Ivan.

I have run into this on power boats when I disable pilot to go around or miss another boat, and then re engage without resetting crosstrack.

It's never let's my sailboat come close to being sixty feet of track so not an issue with me. Captain Bill your boat must be a lot faster than mine.

I certainly would not trust it in a narrow inlet with or without cross current.

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by toddedger

I certainly would not trust it in a narrow inlet with or without cross current.

I wasn't talking about using it in a narrow inlet but being knocked 60 feet off track by a flow coming out of an inlet.

[yardie]

We've sailed over 7000 miles with the EV-1/ACU200 combo on our Lagoon 380. It works as designed. We didn't have to calibrate but it is an option if you think the compass is off.

We did have a bug during the transatlantic. 1000 miles out the AP decided the rudder was hard over starboard and was trying to compensate. Since we were downwind with 20kts TWS we knew something was off. I checked our rudder reference and it was connected okay. Rebooting the entire STNG network was the solution.

Our masthead unit broke before Cape Verde so while we had wind speed we didn't have direction for the entire trip. We didn't use the Autotack just set a course with slight corrections throughout the transit. it's been a fantastic unit and the hardest working member in our crew. I did take it off a few hours a day to give it a rest and give the rest of the crew something to do. We only had solar and the AP is an incredible drain on batteries so between 10-2 we hand steered to allow the solar to put something into the batteries.

Our AP was a drop in replacement to our OEM Lagoon B&G AP. We still use the original LS pump and linear arm. I would recommend getting the P70r instead of the P70. I feel the rotary button is much more intuitive than the +/- buttons. And if you loose the tiller (like a boat did in a recent regatta) you can use the rotary knob as a tiny, tiny wheel.

Our friends in our rally lost their AP, a B&G and were stuck in Cape Verde waiting for a replacement. They weren't the first to complain about B&G autopilots either.