For short trips on a smallish boat, I would forget the complexity of a separate autopilot hooked into a GPS and merely get a tiller pilot with the lowest draw, set it up for the sea state and dial in your course (many tillerpilots have built-in
fluxgate compasses) manually until you more or less match your desired heading as per your GPS, which can also be bought with
gear to hook into a 12 VDC socket, preferably inside the
cabin.
This is what I would do motoring or
motor sailing. Straight sailing? Read one of the many
books that explain how to balance your
sails and use tiller tamers and/or bungee cords to self-steer. The cost is zero to a jug of
rum, depending on how far you want to play around.
You're not going
offshore and you are going to be on
deck keeping watch and will be able to see the
compass and, via pilotage, landmarks to tell you how you are doing with your dialling in of the course. It's a convenience, not a necessity, and you will do better not to build an elaborate system for a small, short-haul sailboat, in my view.
As to which one to buy, I advocate only that you acquire the next size bigger than your boat requires. A stronger drive will burn less amps than a taxed one making constant adjustments (although this is often user-selectable in terms of sensitivity).
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