Suggestions for New Autopilot

[Matthew Davidson]

Hello P40 Family

We are moving along on restoring the Phoenix. Currently almost done with restoring all of the burned fibergalss in the cockpit. Will start priming this weekend!!! The Yacht Specailties wheel pedistal is getting prepared for powder coating. 

Currently looking for input on DC powered autopilots for our Passport? 

We plan on putting a Hydrovane wind driven pilot on in the future but would like to identify the best Autopilot as our primary Puget Sound DC driven unit as well. 

Our next door friend has a wheel mounted - gear driven Simrad unit that we like to looks of but, I wanted to get feed back on what newer units are out there already in service on P40's?

I have to admit we have a Lowrance HSD7 touch from our previous Rawson 30 that I was going to incorporate onto the P40 because I'm quite familiar with it and have loaded up with Navionics.

Suggestions? Love to hear from anyone!

Matthew & Beverly Davidson

Matt's Cell 206-660-1311

[psherwood]

I've had a hydraulic WH autopilot for the last ten years and could not
be happier with it. It's not the cheapest autopilot on the market and
was a fair bit of work to install but has proven itself time and again
in all sorts of conditions. I did have to have a bronze tiller arm
fabricated to fit the rudder post (Wil Hamm, the proprietor, saw to that
when I bought the system).

The only thing it doesn't do well that I've found is steer dead straight
in following seas. I've heard of perhaps two people over the years who
had trouble with their WHs, and Wil responded immediately, sending
replacement parts at no charge.

The company (whautopilots.com) is located on Bainbridge Island,
convenient for us Seattle-area denizens. It's worth checking out as you
shop for autopilots.

Phil
s/v Cynosure
San Carlos / Seattle

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[John Baudendistel]

Matthew,

I have the Raymarine older 6000 linear type ll gear driven AP below decks, with newer instruments and control. Works fine. I've replaced the drive unit once in 18 years.

You will want to consider if you want the AP chart plotter, AIS, etc integrated or all installed as separate units. If one goes out does everything?

My boat is set up with more separate components.

John
Dream Keeper
p 42

Thanks
John Baudendistel
Jo...@ets247.com
650.678.1459

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[Herman Diebler]

Highly recommend the WH autopilot. Had one for twenty+ years trouble free and good support . It is Dashew's preferred autopilots for his Deerfoots and Sundeer boats. And was the choice of Mark Schader's choice for his circumnavigations.

[Jeff and Jane Woodward]

When we bought Adagio in 2002 the autopilot was having trouble.  I can't remember the brand names, but long story short the original company got bought out and then a third company bought the second.  So there was no longer support.

Our pilot is electric over hydraulic.  In other words the muscle is a hydraulic ram with an electric pump that takes orders from an electric brain box.  It's all below decks.  The ram is connected to the rudder post by a bronze arm.

When we contacted the company that bought out the first two, we were told to scrap the whole system and buy a  complete new system.  This did not make sense to me.  All a hydraulic ram does is push, pull, or remain steady.  It just needs a "brain" to tell it what to do.  After some searching we found a marine electronics outfit that agreed with us.  The technician matched the specs of the hydraulics (amperage and throw distance) to a Raymarine flux gate compass and control box.

The system has worked very well.  Never failed us.  Started out in Portland, OR.  Cruised to the top of Vancouver Island and as far south as Manzanillo, Mexico.  Have been in some heavy weather when other boats' autopilots could not operate and the crew were forced to hand steer.

Part of the reason we settled on Raymarine was to be able to get service and parts worldwide, since we knew we wanted the boat to take us to foreign lands.

Jeff

Adagio, P-40 #109, 1986

Portland, OR/San Carlos, MX

> Date: Wed, 20 May 2015 20:58:03 -0700
> From: p...@witanco.com
> To: matthew%anteccorpo...@gtempaccount.com; Passpor...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Passport] Suggestions for New Autopilot

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[Don Fife]

I agree with the hydraulic ram. I kept the old H ram (Octopus) and hooked it up to a new ray marine,2004, works beyond my expectations. I have no idea how old it was before I purchased the boat but I have put on 9500 miles to Mexico, Juneau and now circumnavigation Vancouver Island. 

The ram only does what it is told to do, so any wandering is the brains fault.

Don

S/V Bugler # 25

Sent from my iPad

[Chris - Pelican]

We have a Raymarine X10 control unit with an electric linear drive hooked directly into our quadrant wheel. It's mounted on the underside of the cockpit (we installed a backing plate in the cockpit floor). The control unit is a Raymarine ST70. 

One of the nice things about the modern autopilots (not just Raymarine) is 3D awareness of your boat position. It knows heading, roll, pitch, etc. and can make adjustments. We were in 45kts of wind with a 10-14ft short period following sea after rounding Cape Fear in North Carolina and it kept us straight and true. I could barely hold onto the wheel the couple of times I disengaged, but the Raymarine setup did great. Even with the boat wanting to do major wallows as the waves came up behind us, the autopilot would anticipate and correct and keep us on course. The linear drive, while more power hungry than a hydraulic ram, is a bit less expensive than its hydraulic counterparts. It more than kept up with everything we threw at it.

I also picked Raymarine because of the worldwide availability of parts and service centers, and the proximity of the US based facilities to where I mostly sail. Very few people in the northeast deal with Simrad and Furuno, and I'm not a big Garmin lover. B&G is just too expensive for what you get. We already had Raymarine, so it made sense to keep going down that path.

Chris

s/v/ Pelican

Passport 40 #64

[Tccbowie]

We just installed a Raymarine autopilot, Evolution control and type 2 drive unit, very happy with it.  The installation was fairly easy, the drive unit is mounted to the underside of the cockpit floor and the ram is mounted to the steering quadrant.  The steering quadrant on our Passport is extremely beefy.  We looked at other companies but excluded a couple due to the stroke distance on the drive unit being too small.  

Our boat is in Portland so if you are in our area let me know and I can show you the innumerable other projects that I have done.

Tim

Osprey, P40, 1982