The Right Tiller Pilot for a Small Boat

[forsailbyowner]

I went with the tp30 for a 23' i owned. I liked the interface with the gps that the tp20 and 10 lack. I used the tillerpilot for over 10 years and it still worked when I sold the boat. Waterproof sock? I had mine completely underwater when waves broke into the cockpit. Once a wave came in hard enough to lift it out of its socket and it was trailing behind the boat from the cord.

[Ex-Calif]

FSBO - The ST1000+ interfaces with a gps and wind if you have it through NMEA 0183.

Also the mounting instructions do show the method for mounting on the vertical side faces of the cockpit although all the mountings I have actually seen mount a block on the seat.

[PatrickG]

Hi past,

Just sent you a PM with some pictures of my tiller pilot installation - hope they are of use. As far as the alternative installation you describe - that could also be a good way to go, although I'm not sure how easy it is to access the inside of the surface you are talking about, for holding the nut while tightening screws or such. May be that that was easier to do while the boat was being manufactured. The only other Etap installation I've seen was the one I copied, and in the end we haven't been bothered by the mount base on the locker cover. Although I do agree, it did hurt to take a drill bit to the teak

Cheers,
Patrick

[Mattjwhitneyiii]

Originally Posted by muised

My Douglas 32 came with an Autohelm 1000 (I believe it was the precurser to the Raymarine). It self destructed after day four of a five day maiden voyage, although honestly I have no idea how old it was at the time, and it was used / abused downwind with fairly heavy weather.

I was going to replace it with an ST2000, but found an ST1000 at a very good price so that is on the boat now. Have not had a problem with it, and our boat is probably 3 times the displacement of the etap (which is a really nice boat I might add). I also had an ST1000 on a 25 footer linked to the Raymarine wind instrument which worked like a charm. I have never had any issues with water damaging any of these products.

So, all that said I would rather have the ST2000 regardless of boat size, but I think functinoally the ST1000 would be fine. I would rather have two ST1000's than one of anything.

Just came across this very old post, but am interested to know if your ST1000 was a direct replacement for the autohelm without having to make any changes to the mounting configuration.

[Tehani]

9 years have passed since the start of this thread.

Currently the ST1000 has been replaced by the EVO100 with many improvements.

[Adelie]

Not the record for the longest revival but close, I saw a 10yr old thread revived several years ago.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Tehani

9 years have passed since the start of this thread.

Currently the ST1000 has been replaced by the EVO100 with many improvements.

It should be an improvement at 3X the price, but I may have to get one of those or a pypilot also because the shaft keeps coming out of my ST2000.

Also the ST2000 is starting to lose it's orientation at times, and I have to recycle the power.

Maybe I'll use my Simrad locally then get the EVO100 before cruising away or a windvane

Or a different boat......

[skkeith]

When I got my Islander28 it had an st800 which did work OK until it broke. However, I went and upgraded to the ST2000. It worked fine until one day it failed horribly nearly causing a collision. The fault turned out to be a mechanical gyro (the device show in pictures below). I'll tell you after investigating the cheap plastic (moving) internal parts of this thing I would go with something else. I went with a pelagic autopilot and never looked back. This thing is bullet proof, no moving parts in the controller which sits far away from your tiller.