Raymarine ST 4000+ Autohelm

[Tmacmi]

Referenced autohelm came with our new to us boat. I am increasingly frustrated with it. It will "hunt" 5 degrees or more. I've done the calibrations spelled out in the manual, including rudder gain and response rate and still no resolution.

Is there anyone who has resolved these problems before.

Would have rudder reference transducer make a particular difference?

Thanks

[Tetepare]

It's a combination of things.

Wheel pilots (the ST4000 being the most common) have limitations.

The ST4000 is rated for a maximum of 16,000lbs. Your boat empty is 11,200lbs. Fully loaded I'd guess it's 13,000lbs, so at 81% of the MAXIMUM stated capacity.

Your rudder is small. That makes everything harder, including for the autopilot. We had the ST4000 on the Catalina 30, and we have it on the Legend 37.5. It's better on the 37.5 for one reason: the size of the rudder.

According to Raymarine, the rudder reference transducer will help. How much? I don't know.

We have a ST4000 on a 16,000lb empty boat; it does OK. No rudder transducer. It is what it is, the heavier the weather, the worse it works, but in general it rates as OK.

[Franziska]

We have set ours that it works fairly fast and better in bad weather which means it hunts a bit in calmer weather.

Unfortunately it is a compromise of all those factors.