Forgetful old fart and autopilot

[wrwakefield]

RSN48,

I believe that careful use of our autopilot actually improves our safety— both sailing and motoring.

We also ply the Inside Passage BC to southcentral Alaska full time.

A safe, well plotted course being followed by a trustworthy pilot [electronic in this case] allows watchstander[s] to spend a higher percentage of their time maintaining/improving situational awareness.

In our case this typically means scrutinizing the water for dangers [logs, ice, rocks, other vessels, etc.]; monitoring the RADAR, forward looking SONAR, AIS, etc. [And of course keeping an eye on Otto— as we affectionately call our autopilot...]

And because we are not hand steering for long periods of time, I believe watchstanders [we are 2 adults] are less fatigued— which likely favors our safety and wellbeing.

And Otto will very likely handle following the route out of a tricky anchorage [the reverse of that plotted when entering...] under extreme bailout conditions/duress— in the dark— better than I could...

Basically— in our case— hand steering for extended periods is generally the exception.


Cheers! Bill

[jmschmidt]

COLREGS (international law) require you to maintain a proper watch. Insurance coverage requires you to operate within the law. Any deviation from the requirements of your policy and your insurance company may (and will if the dollars are big) decline to cover the consequences. Aside from the damage, injury and death that could result from your non-compliance, the possibility of having to eat the expense personally for every dime you have should be enough to encourage you to maintain a proper watch.

The term "proper" when preceding the word "watch" means by a competent, skilled observer, not one of you passengers who just stands behind the wheel.

[kudukuguam]

There was a reason for 4 hour watches on ships of yore. Even today.

[lordgeoff]

Originally Posted by rsn48

So I've toyed with an autopilot and so far have decided against one. I cruise the Inside Passage area so change of course requirements usually occur sooner than latter. I tell my guests they are my autopilot and I often do an hour on and an hour off schedule for daylight running on the helm.

It has occurred to me I could use an autopilot when running solo on my power boat, top speed currently 11 knots. But I could see going down below to the galley and V birth area and then getting caught up in some task I had not intended to do while my boat cheerfully carries on without my attention and ....

So is there some benefit of autopilot I'm not taking into account? My longest cruise time will be 8 to 10 hours, but that will definitely be the exception, not the rule.

For me the AP is THE most useful aid to long distance cruising and close coastal cruising.
I had a failed AP (ended up being a loose electrical connection at the Raymarine Course Computer after work done in Gibraltar) and two of us hand steered for 5 days to Canaries. Hand steering 24/7 is BS.
If crossing a dangerous bar I will use the AP and strap myself in.
The boat and the AP handle it way better without me getting in the way.

[DirtMcGirt]

Find yourself an egg timer and tether it to the binnacle. If you leave the cockpit, set it for 5-10 minutes.

[Elie]

What is more boring then steering by hand all day long in the intracoastal. Auto pilot is freedom and time to do other things like navigation planing, calling marinas, prepare a thea or doing nice thing like enjoeing the vue...
Autot pilot is an outstanding modern tool !

[Mike Banks]

My vessel was a trimaran, and had a TMQ hydraulic autopilot. It could sail a compass or GPS course. It was better than having another crew member aboard, BUT I would never leave the vessel in charge of the autopilot and go below without some human on watch.

Autopilots will be fine in open ocean clear of commercial seaways, but only for short intervals while one cat-naps and only then if one is alone. Personally, I prefer to heave-to and snooze, with AIS or Radar watch. I think most of the modern vessels lost at sea are the result of collisions, either with other vessels or floating containers or logs. An autopilot will hold you on course to either, if you or someone else is not there to supervise.

I would not sail without one--but they are a labour-saver and allow you to concentrate on what is ahead of the vessel rather than on the compass card.

[Scaramanga F25]

Webb Chiles on his Moore 24 carries 4 autopilots on his trip from SC to Cal, via the canal. Says something... Webb is completing his 6th circumnavigation with this trip. He has used wind vanes mostly in the past but considered heavy and complicated for this small ULDB.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Mike Banks

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I would not sail without one--but they are a labour-saver and allow you to concentrate on what is ahead of the vessel rather than on the compass card.

So true. Two snippets from my trip up the coast in 2016:


1]
The approach to Crescent City is “easy” but with the down on the deck fog and in the dark we were within 0.3 nm of the R2 buoy before it showed, and we followed the buoys into the harbor. The autopilot does a lot better steering than a human. In conditions like these, trying to plot on the GPS and steer in fog is hard. Steering a straight line, even under power, in limited visibility and/or at night is best left to what we call Graeme, our U.K. autopilot. I just need to reset it to the more rapid response, an easy two button task. We have it set for slow response at sea, since it not only uses less power, but is much quieter.



2]
We stopped off at the fuel dock to get water, much easier than hauling out our own hose from the lazarette, and departed to ride the start of the flood out the entrance. There was a light south wind and we made good time under high clouds with good visibility. Soon after passing Cape Foulweather and Depoe Bay we saw a small open boat fishing. We both remarked at how two boats could end up getting so close to each other when they were the only ones out there. Morgan was up on the foredeck at 1300 when Aquavite suddenly turned and headed right for the fishing boat. Graeme had died. The display was flashing Cyrillic characters instead of the numbers for the course. We took to hand steering...

[aliddell]

Took our small trawler from Anacortes to Alaska; Sitka, Juneau and points in between. Had autopilot hooked to GPS and used A/P 90% of the time. Nice for compensating for many current changes to stay on direct to course. Wouldn't be without it!

[NYSail]

We love our auto pilot...... if you look at our track, self steer is a zig zag....... you can tell when auto takes over....... straight line. We NEVER take for granted and always keep one set of eyes going, unless we are way out with nothing in site. Much of He time wife and I sit on the bow relaxing....... with the remote in my pocket just in case a lobster pot shows up. Greatest equipment or at lease up at the top!

Greg

[Gaia]

Well the opinion expressed are unanimous I believe and we concur. We have used ours around the world 99.9% of the time. When it failed two days out of Rodriquez in the Indian Ocean we chose to hove to at night until we fixed it in Rodriquez. In SA we bought the Evolution series from Raymarine and it has been wonderful. We are now in the Bahamas.

No one yet I believe has mentioned that the AP is like having an extra crew member or two or even three on board that do not demand anything other than being fed electrons.

I find that we are more attentive to the many other tasks demanded of the watchkeeper on board when the AP is engaged. We recently sailed the Hawks channel in the Keys and watching out for crab pots was a full time occupation much aided by the AP. One gets to learn the number of degrees to apply for avoidance quickly. GAIA would not sail passages without a working AP along with many spares.

Jim

[NYSail]

Yes pur auto pilots name is Auto...... he is swell!

[desodave]

We cruise the same waters as you do in a sailboat and I wouldn't want to do it without an autopilot. Life is much more relaxed and the boat keeps a way more consistent track than I could manually. There is a lot of motoring in our area especially up and down channels between islands and Otto excels at it. It's a lot easier to drink your coffee, have a snack, sight-see a bit or check the latest forecast on your phone while Otto's maintaining the correct course.



But you still have to keep a proper watch when Otto's engaged for all the reasons already suggested. And going down below for 10 min is not that imho. I always ask the admiral to maintain watch if I'm off the helm for anything other than momentarily ducking into the cabin to grab something. Otto doesn't have any eyes.

[Dooglas]

Yes, I also remember hand steering to a compass heading for 8-10 hours a day once upon a time. Glad those days are gone. Both my last two cruising sailboats, and my cruising powerboat have had autopilots. The current one has a remote for the AP which allows me to move around the boat and make course corrections as appropriate. I would not do without one by choice.