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16-01-2019, 11:26
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, BC
Boat: 1969 30 Mariner Sedan Cruiser
Posts: 760
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Forgetful old fart and autopilot
So I've toyed with an autopilot and so far have decided against one. I cruise the Inside Passage area so change of course requirements usually occur sooner than latter. I tell my guests they are my autopilot and I often do an hour on and an hour off schedule for daylight running on the helm.
It has occurred to me I could use an autopilot when running solo on my power boat, top speed currently 11 knots. But I could see going down below to the galley and V birth area and then getting caught up in some task I had not intended to do while my boat cheerfully carries on without my attention and ....
So is there some benefit of autopilot I'm not taking into account? My longest cruise time will be 8 to 10 hours, but that will definitely be the exception, not the rule.
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16-01-2019, 11:53
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2014
Location: USA
Boat: 41' yawl
Posts: 1,187
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Simply standing watch for 8-10 hours is still a lot easier than hand-steering for 8-10 hours.
Plus, being similarly distractible, i feel the autopilot keeps a tighter course than my snakewake.
And it frees me up to noodle around with the sails.
And tinkle.
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16-01-2019, 17:56
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, BC
Boat: 1969 30 Mariner Sedan Cruiser
Posts: 760
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Sailboat I can definitely see autopilot for sail changes, etc. With a power boat in somewhat close quarters cruising, I'm not seeing as much. For example, the proverbial pee, I just stop the boat, go down below and pee and come back up and throttle back on up.
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16-01-2019, 18:28
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Cowichan Bay, BC (Maple Bay Marina)
Posts: 9,703
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Isailed up from SF to BC over six weeks with my son as crew. We woulda killed each other without the autopilot.
OH, WAIT!!!
The AP died halfway up in Newport, OR.
8-13 hours days tending the wheel sucks.
Period.
APs are like microwave ovens and ATMs. How'd we ever live without 'em?
__________________
Stu Jackson
Catalina 34 #224 (1986) C34IA Secretary
Cowichan Bay, BC, SR/FK, M25, Rocna 10 (22#) (NZ model)
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16-01-2019, 19:12
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#5
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Moderator and Certifiable Refitter
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: South of 43 S, Australia
Boat: C.L.O.D.
Posts: 20,241
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Once you get one, you can't live without it
__________________
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangereous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. T.E. Lawrence
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16-01-2019, 19:36
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Langley, WA
Boat: Nordic 44
Posts: 2,496
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Wife and I cruise BC inland waters every summer. Use the autopilot all the time. Makes being under way much easier. I layout the route in opencpn and get heading, distance and estimated time from it while under way. Then set a timer to some interval shorter than the waypoint arrival time - usually about five minutes. Then I am free to be the lookout without worry about course until the timer goes off. I do watch opencpn for off course error during each leg and adjust course with the AP. Sometimes the currents are so squirrely that the ap needs seemingly constant adjustment but even that is better than being tied to the helm. Some autopilots can be kept on course by feeding cross track info to them. Mine is too abrupt in it's corrections so I don't. Maybe some newer ones behave better.
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16-01-2019, 19:40
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#7
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Marine Service Provider
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Port Credit, Ontario or Bahamas
Boat: Benford 38 Fantail Cruiser
Posts: 7,046
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
We cruise at 7knots and almost always on autopilot. My buddy runs at 15knots without autopilot.
We both left our harbour at the same time for a 25 mile run to another marina. We arrived at the same time.
I had made one course change while he had probably made 100. Every time he talked to his kids or wife he would go wildly off course.
__________________
If you're not laughing, you're not doin' it right.
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16-01-2019, 20:07
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Seattle
Boat: Bavaria 35E
Posts: 257
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Just completed the Baja Ha Ha without AP. Total PIA. To my mind, anyone in this day and age traveling a long distance voluntarily without it is just looking for a medal.
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16-01-2019, 21:32
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Everywhere
Boat: Colegate 26
Posts: 1,153
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Fancy autopilots mated to a chart plotter can follow a course including headings changes. Literally draw a line on the chart plotter using "drop a pin" routing and the boat will follow the route. That would reduce your chances of catastrophe if you go below and forget to check in on it for a period of time. I'M NOT SUGGESTING THIS IS ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR.
I think it's good to have even if all you do is press a button to hold course. Allows you to get a jacket or blow your nose or get more sunscreen ...
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16-01-2019, 21:48
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, BC
Boat: 1969 30 Mariner Sedan Cruiser
Posts: 760
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Boats in for a major refit, new engine, deck, some rebuilding in the interior, upgrade to electronics and radar added. So now...sigh... I have to look at autopilot. The Vancouver Boat show is just around the corner, I've already booked my room in Vancouver for two nights.
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17-01-2019, 05:15
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#11
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario - 48-29N x 89-20W
Boat: (Cruiser Living On Dirt)
Posts: 49,082
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris95040
Simply standing watch for 8-10 hours is still a lot easier than hand-steering for 8-10 hours.
Plus, being similarly distractible, i feel the autopilot keeps a tighter course than my snakewake.
And it frees me up to noodle around with the sails.
And tinkle.
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I concur. All valid.
__________________
Gord May
"If you didn't have the time or money to do it right in the first place, when will you get the time/$ to fix it?"
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17-01-2019, 05:24
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#12
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Jacksonville/ out cruising
Boat: Island Packet 38
Posts: 31,351
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
According to my kids there were two upgrades that I did to the boat that were most important.
1. Autopilot
2. Countertop ice maker
I can remember years ago steering our Sportfisherman all night long with no moon and a quartering following sea, in other words just the compass to steer by. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t hold a course nearly as well as the autopilot did.
Biggest reason I dislike the ICW is that you have to helm so much of it.
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17-01-2019, 06:16
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#13
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Solent, England
Boat: Moody 31
Posts: 18,398
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Quote:
Originally Posted by a64pilot
I can remember years ago steering our Sportfisherman all night long with no moon and a quartering following sea, in other words just the compass to steer by. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t hold a course nearly as well as the autopilot did.
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Same here, 14 hours hand steering back from France through a filthy black night into the teeth of a gale. We fitted a tiller pilot on the next trip when faced with another long trip home. Now upgraded to the latest Raymarine wheel pilot, pure luxury.
I can now make tea, go to the loo and plot the position etc.
Pete
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17-01-2019, 09:10
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 387
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
We twice went from Anacortes, WA, up to Glacier Bay, AK, and used the Autopilot a lot but also hand steered a lot, too. But you do have to keep a close watch for clumps of kelp, logs, lots of current, etc. and taking the helm from the Autopilot quickly for evasion manuevers. An autopilot makes life easier, but in those PNW waters a good lookout is essential.
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17-01-2019, 10:19
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, BC
Boat: 1969 30 Mariner Sedan Cruiser
Posts: 760
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Re: Forgetful old fart and autopilot
Biggest reason I dislike the ICW is that you have to helm so much of it.
An autopilot makes life easier, but in those PNW waters a good lookout is essential.
In closer quarters you do need to keep a tighter watch, in so many ways crossing the ocean is much easier than navigating and cruising in tighter quarters like Jarvis Inlet, Desolation Sound and the Broughtons. I ditto the comment about crap in the water, much more floating around in the Inside Passage. For example, not dead heads (which I've hit a couple of times with a sailboat) but smaller trees blown down by heavy winds which are routine at this time of the year in the Inside passage. The larger logs can escape from towed log booms and over time get water logged and float much lower in the water, but fortunately the smaller trees are easier to spot as their small branches are sticking up.
And then there is the crap brought in by heavy currents in various areas of the Inside Passage.
Where the autopilot would be handy is the - for me - two hour passage over to Powell River before heading off either to Jarvis Inlet or Desolation Sound. But then again, its only two hours, which means my guests would be at the helm for one of those hours.
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