Auto Pilot Question (IP29)

[Celestialsailor]

If you hand steer a season or two, that will give you time to save for a decent unit. By then the $2K-$3K will seem insignificant after the hassle of hand steering.

[transmitterdan]

I consider a quality below decks AP an essential safety item. More important than new sails even. It's a question of priorities. I would dread a multi day passage without AP.

The OP wanted an AP to steer while sail handling. For that all that's needed is a wind input to a basic AP. No GPS input needed. In fact, GPS integration is not really a requirement for AP usage.

A wind vane isn't much help when raising/lowering sails. It gets confused easily as sail loading changes in my experience.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

If you hand steer a season or two, that will give you time to save for a decent unit. By then the $2K-$3K will seem insignificant after the hassle of hand steering.

I did that, two years going back and forth across the Gulf of Mexico, just weekends and vacations.
But Otto has been elevated to God status now that we have one, very little else has been such a labor and mind saving device as he has, even if it is a primitive one that will only hold a heading.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I did that, two years going back and forth across the Gulf of Mexico, just weekends and vacations.
But Otto has been elevated to God status now that we have one, very little else has been such a labor and mind saving device as he has, even if it is a primitive one that will only hold a heading.