Recently on a 40 day
cruise (I was crew) we experienced the following
Brand new 3 month old
boat with a complete suite of
B&G electronics and
autopilot. Without any warning the AP would simply disengage and the
Rudder would become completely free. The auto pilot was a new Jaffa Servo
Type with a cluth. The multi purpose display would error message
"AP
lost communication" or something similar I don't remember exactly
And the
clutch would completely disengage and the
rudder was totally
Free wheeling until there was human intervention.
This made for some very interesting nighttime terror.
We were able to get the auto pilot back by resetting the system with a
power
Shutdown or by deleting all previous waypoints and the very next one
The course computer was replaced once during the trip
The owners solution was to have a crew
member always at the
helm
With a hand on the
wheel ready to take over if the AP failed
With 1500nm to go this got a bit trying and led to crew fatigue.
The owner didn't want to address the issue until we got to our
destination
3 weeks away. We were in
marinas more or less every night but the owner didn't
Want to spend a dime bringing in any techs
Brand
new boat, everything under warranty
How should this been felt with?