CPT Autopilot

[Madrugada]

Gents,

Has anyone had experince (good or bad) with CPT Autopilot on there vessel
Im thinking of buying the Autopilot, just want to get opinions on build quality and functionality.

Ive seen several reviews on u-tube they all seem to have high praise for the product

thanks

[robert sailor]

As far as wheel pilots they are the best out there in my opinion. Ours was purchased as a backup autopilot but it worked so well and was so stingy with electricity that it steered our 42 footer 95% of the time crossing the Atlantic. The older models have a very rudimentary compass but the new ones are wonderful. We had a cruising friend that used one to circumnavigate on a 50 footer.

[a64pilot]

I love mine, original intent since I cannot fit a wind vane was to have a CPT as a backup to a 'real" autopilot. I installed the CPT first and to be honest it does all I need an autopilot to do, hold a heading with decent accuracy, it won't do anything else though.
I have since re-evaluated my auto pilot needs and will likely purchase another CPT to be kept below, as they are just two modules, you can change it out in seconds in case the first one quits.
They sell a cruisers spare just for this, without all the not needed parts

[SV Windrush II]

I have a CPT autopilot that I installed on my Mariner 40 with a traditional screw drive and a full lead keel, So needless to say, it takes a good turn of the wheel to make my boat react very easily.

The autopilot seamed to have a hard time keeping my boat on a tight heading because it did not turn my wheel far enough to bring the boat back to the heading, thus causing the boat to wonder about 15 deg from port to starboard, so for example, If my heading was 180 deg, it would wonder anywhere from 165 to 195 deg.
I spent weeks trying to mess with the dials but could not get it to work any better unless the seas were really flat.

With that said, I had it on most of the time from Hawaii to the Philippines and never quit on me until about a month ago while I was sailing here in the Philippines it started to loose control of the boat and turn it around.
So now I am sending it back to CPT to have it fixed.

I think if you have a more modern boat with a more sensitive helm you would have a much better experience than I had.

[IdoraKeeper]

I have an older dial control CPT. It seems to keep working but last time out may have begun having problems. It's simple minded, does not employ a rudder position sensor. It has enough torque to steer the boat but it's too slow to keep up with heading changes caused by tide rips. It's main advantage is that it's able to steer a 23000 lb boat as a wheel pilot. The PO did not really set it up correctly so I am correcting some installation errors. We shall see how it performs then.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by SV Windrush II

I have a CPT autopilot that I installed on my Mariner 40 with a traditional screw drive and a full lead keel, So needless to say, it takes a good turn of the wheel to make my boat react very easily.

The autopilot seamed to have a hard time keeping my boat on a tight heading because it did not turn my wheel far enough to bring the boat back to the heading, thus causing the boat to wonder about 15 deg from port to starboard, so for example, If my heading was 180 deg, it would wonder anywhere from 165 to 195 deg.
I spent weeks trying to mess with the dials but could not get it to work any better unless the seas were really flat.

With that said, I had it on most of the time from Hawaii to the Philippines and never quit on me until about a month ago while I was sailing here in the Philippines it started to loose control of the boat and turn it around.
So now I am sending it back to CPT to have it fixed.

I think if you have a more modern boat with a more sensitive helm you would have a much better experience than I had.

Did you have the sensitivity cranked right up? Wheel pilots will always have more difficulties with boats that require large amounts of impute. You might see if you can get a smaller drive wheel attached to your steering wheel. That would speed up the response at the cost of less torque. I've found the owner to be very good at dealing with any issues with his product. You've really put some miles on that Mariner 40, good on ya.

[SV Windrush II]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Did you have the sensitivity cranked right up? Wheel pilots will always have more difficulties with boats that require large amounts of impute. You might see if you can get a smaller drive wheel attached to your steering wheel. That would speed up the response at the cost of less torque. I've found the owner to be very good at dealing with any issues with his product. You've really put some miles on that Mariner 40, good on ya.

Yeah I tried all settings. The best was having both dials at about 80%

I'm hoping that they can tweak it to work better with my steering. Changing the drive ratio sounds like a good solution. I will talk to them about that. Thanks!

[chris95040]

I use the cpt on a 22k pound 40 ft yawl. Full(ish) keel, barn door rudder, cpt works great. And it's -silent-.

I was surprised at how vulnerable the motor box was to water intrusion through the wiring harness, though!

I had employed an inline fuse, a 'nice' one with an o-ring and whatnot, but it was junk and it leaked. The water went along the *inside* of the wire into the motor box and rusted the **** out of everything, seizing the motor. CPT fixed it up for free, but this was only 2 months of use, under a bimini, getting only some spray every now and then, only seeing use on weekends.. (Then it sat all winter and I realized the problem the next season.) So anyways, it failed in a hurry. Make absolutely certain however you wire it up its not vulnerable to this failure!

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by chris95040

I use the cpt on a 22k pound 40 ft yawl. Full(ish) keel, barn door rudder, cpt works great. And it's -silent-.

I was surprised at how vulnerable the motor box was to water intrusion through the wiring harness, though!

I had employed an inline fuse, a 'nice' one with an o-ring and whatnot, but it was junk and it leaked. The water went along the *inside* of the wire into the motor box and rusted the **** out of everything, seizing the motor. CPT fixed it up for free, but this was only 2 months of use, under a bimini, getting only some spray every now and then, only seeing use on weekends.. (Then it sat all winter and I realized the problem the next season.) So anyways, it failed in a hurry. Make absolutely certain however you wire it up its not vulnerable to this failure!

Did you say the water entered the motor between the wire and the outside insulation?

[SV Windrush II]

Originally Posted by chris95040

I use the cpt on a 22k pound 40 ft yawl. Full(ish) keel, barn door rudder, cpt works great. And it's -silent-.

I was surprised at how vulnerable the motor box was to water intrusion through the wiring harness, though!

I had employed an inline fuse, a 'nice' one with an o-ring and whatnot, but it was junk and it leaked. The water went along the *inside* of the wire into the motor box and rusted the **** out of everything, seizing the motor. CPT fixed it up for free, but this was only 2 months of use, under a bimini, getting only some spray every now and then, only seeing use on weekends.. (Then it sat all winter and I realized the problem the next season.) So anyways, it failed in a hurry. Make absolutely certain however you wire it up its not vulnerable to this failure!

They must have fixed this issue, because i mounted my drive box on the side of my cockpit and had waves come over the deck and drown everything in the cockpit several times. I remember looking at my autopilot under seawater expecting it to quit, but it never did and there was no water intrusion! I was pretty surprised actually

[AiniA]

We use a CPT as a backup to a wind vane on our Bristol 45.5 which cruises at close to 40,000 pounds. Very pleased with the performance so far, although it is not used for days at a time. The compass seems quite sensitive to outside interference so you need to shop around to find the best place to mount.

[Madrugada]

Hi SV Windrush II,

I'm hoping to have it on my boat it's Endurance 35 Ketch full keel, you think it will have similar problems with mine,

It's a 10 ton boat ??

[SV Windrush II]

Originally Posted by Madrugada

Hi SV Windrush II,

I'm hoping to have it on my boat it's Endurance 35 Ketch full keel, you think it will have similar problems with mine,

It's a 10 ton boat ??

What kind of steering system do you have?

[robert sailor]

Years ago at boat shows they used to have the cpt wheel pilots operating underwater in an aquarium.

[Madrugada]

SV Windrush,

It's definitely not cables or pulleys......it's on a pedestal steering direct to quadrant.....

Thanks