Autohelm
- Thread starter Capt Steve
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FWIW, the factory installed a mechanical rotary drive - Type 2 with a corepack computer and a Autohelm ST7000 head. I added a yaw transducer for better downwind performance. The system has worked fine since new in 1997. I have lots of pictures if you are doing the install yourself.
Your boat is big enough so you don't want a wheel driven unit where the motor is on the wheel. You also need a rudder detector because modern boats have wheels that go from stop to stop with fewer rotations than older boats and so that can confuse the system so that the unit "hunts" the course.
Pictures would be great Rich - factory told me they don't manufacture the rotary drive any longer. Do you think a Raymarine unit would fit in the space?Rich Stidger said:
A yaw transducer is an accelerometer that provides an input to the autopilot computer to tell it how fast the boat is yawing (turning port or starboard). This signal is used to help the autopilot computer produce a steering correction before the heading sensor (fluxgate compass) shows a large error.
It basically performs electronically the same function as you would do when hand-steering and a following sea kicks your stern off course. You would anticipate the effect of the following sea whereas the computer uses the rate of change (acceleration) to measure and correct the steering.
Newer Raymarine autopilots have this sensor built in to them, but the older Autohelm Corepack 100, 150, 300 and 400 series computers did not. The yaw sensor was offered as an option. Too bad for the older units because IMHO the yaw sensor is really a necessary feature.
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