Visit our Popular Forums

AnchorageGuy · 28-10-2010, 07:35

I agree Charlie and since it is a great piece of equipment, it would be a shame to see it go away. They just don't make stuff like this any more. Chuck

Paul L · 28-10-2010, 08:25

Bill,
You don't say what type of sailing you want to do with this boat. If it is offshore, you need an AP that will handle the acceleration of this boat. That means it will need the gyro support (don't think WH has that) If it is long distance stuff, then you need reliability. I use a Furuno AP on a J/37 offshore. So far it has been very good. For reliability you'll need a below decks unit. I had a below decks Raymarine, but it was not reliable - went through 3 computers in 6 or 7 years.

Paul L

rourkeh · 28-10-2010, 09:15

In my experience Simrad makes the best autopilot system for larger vessels. They manufacture a lot of commercial electronics for ships and their recreational equipment benefits from the trickle down tech. When we were building larger motoryachts in the last 20 years we would only use Simrad ap systems nothing else is even close. Price on this equipment for a 40-50 sailboat is all going to be very close you may as well get the best bang for the buck.

AnchorageGuy · 28-10-2010, 09:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul L

Bill,
You don't say what type of sailing you want to do with this boat. If it is offshore, you need an AP that will handle the acceleration of this boat. That means it will need the gyro support (don't think WH has that) If it is long distance stuff, then you need reliability. I use a Furuno AP on a J/37 offshore. So far it has been very good. For reliability you'll need a below decks unit. I had a below decks Raymarine, but it was not reliable - went through 3 computers in 6 or 7 years.

Paul L

WH has both fluxgate and gyro and is quite capable of more than handling anything offshore. Is has steered for us in 8 to 10 foot seas without a hesitation and steered the boat just fine for two days in gale force winds and seas. Chuck

Paul L · 28-10-2010, 19:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterwayguy

WH has both fluxgate and gyro and is quite capable of more than handling anything offshore. Is has steered for us in 8 to 10 foot seas without a hesitation and steered the boat just fine for two days in gale force winds and seas. Chuck

Waterguy,
I have heard nothing but good about the WH pilots. When I looked at them a few years ago the gyro was on their website, but when I talked to Hamm he was insistent that it wasn't needed and kinda implied that it wasn't really available. Not sure what type of boat you have the WH on or if you have the gyro version. The original poster was asking about a J/40. This boat will see some remarkable changes in boat speed in very short times while offshore and downwind. This can be demanding on an AP.

Paul L

sded · 28-10-2010, 19:41

I personally have a B&G Network autopilot on my J40, and have heard from others that both the latest B&G and the gyro equipped Raymarine handle even better. My B&G has steered well for 12 years (15K miles) or so, including to San Francisco and Mexico, so would be confident in the newer model, as well as the Raymarine. But they are very agile boats.

felixqld66 · 06-11-2010, 03:07

Hey NCountry

I am very interested in your Nav set up and would appreciate any further detail and or pics. I am considering the following for my 39ft Landfall cutter disp 23500lbs.

C120W plotter
4kw Dig radar
St70 Autopilot head
St60+ wind /speed/depth /log
SPX30 box
Just trying to sort the best drive unit out of the type 3 HYdraulic linnear drive or the type 3 reversing hydraulic pump.

I hadn't considered the remote control. I like that the ST70 head unit can act as a repeater and the plotter can fully drive the autopilot. So you only have the Plotter at the helm?
All other instruments at the Nav table?
Did you consider the sounder module?

Cheers Alex

forsailbyowner · 06-11-2010, 04:56

After shopping features I went with the furuno navpilot, It had the auto learning and gyro functions standard that were extra on other manufacterers. The name had something to do with it When I look on coast guard and commercial boats I see a lot of furuno equipment. Its worked well for 30k miles in various conditions.

donradcliffe · 06-11-2010, 07:43

Here's what the Velux 5 Oceans singlehanders have to say about their autopilots:

Brad Van Liew
I am trucking along in the southeast trades off the coast of Brazil making some miles, but it is not comfortable sailing as it is almost upwind and very wet on deck. Everything with the boat seems in order and the autopilots have now had enough mileage in all conditions that their never ending auto-learn software has the boat so wired that it makes me look average at steering. It is really quite remarkable that the technology has come so far in the last few years. The last time I did this race, the “cat’s meow” was being able to rely on true wind steer features while steering off the breeze. At that time NKE, Raymarine and B&G were all in on the game and now have it pretty wired. The next challenge seems to be eliminating masthead movement through motion sensors and software, which makes for very steady wind data. The net result is that the wake in my current 20 knots of tight reach steering to wind looks like a pair of train tracks off the twin rudders. B&G seems to have it working. We’ll see very soon how this all works in the “full noise” atmosphere of the southern ocean very soon!

Gutek
After so many days spent at the stern of my boat, I finally managed to fix my NKE steering gear. Now it goes like a brand new one – hurray!

goboatingnow · 06-11-2010, 17:44

Simrad hasn't been part of konigsberg for some time. It's actually lowrance gear.

The C & E series ray plotters have very basic autopilot control. It's nothing like the simrad nse 2.0 system. You'll still need a autopilot control head.

Dave