Autopilot remote

Oct 26, 2010
1,883
Hunter 40.5 Beaufort, SC
I have the Raymarine S100 wireless autopilot remote control but rarely use it. And if you went MOB you would QUICKLY fall out of range of the system.
http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=848
Gunni, I agree with the range issue. The Raymarine S100 says a range of 32' which seems so short as to be practically useless for anything but moving around the cockpit and maybe to the mast for some adjustment but I can get to the P70 head for normal operation. The other one linked lists a range of 100' (30m) from the base unit. While still pretty short it might give enough time to round up but even then I doubt you could control it accurately enough to keep it within that 100 foot range to do much good since doing so (punching the buttons) would keep you from swimming to the boat. Just wondered if anyone had one and whether it even worked as advertised.
 
Dec 14, 2003
1,393
Hunter 34 Lake of Two Mountains, QC, Can
Ditto on the range if you went MOB + you'd probably short it as soon as immerged in the water. I have the
Madman Marine Model AP-WRC3 connected to my X-5 Raymarine and it works very good from all points on the boat, even from the headstay, so long as you point it towards mother unit itself which is installed under coaming in the starboard lazarette. Allows me to go to mast foot and still keep control of the boat. Ordered it from Australia. Neil Finlayson is a sailor and gave me phenomenal service when I ran into some issues with the remote fobs. No relation whatsoever, but an impressed customer. Fobs are no bigger than my key. Besides being much smaller than the Raymarine unit, it was much cheaper. Info at www.madmarine.com/
 
Sep 29, 2008
1,928
Catalina 310 #185 Quantico
I would imagine it works as the SeaTalk commands are pretty straight forward. I have an ST50 wired remote that I snagged new in the box at Bacon's for $25. It works great with my ST60 S1 Autopilot. I use it a lot when there is a lot of debris in the river and I need to try and avoid all the trees and such.
 
May 29, 2018
457
Canel 25 foot Shiogama, japan
Hi Smokey
If this "Seems like a good idea after our discussions on single handed MOB!"
is the point you are thinking about.
Firstly the remote that you linked mentions "glows in the dark" twice but "waterproof "not at all,
It it is not waterproof it is not going to stop the boat from sailing off to the sunset (without you).
Gunni mentions the Autohelm S100 which is what I have.
As advertised says , "basic onboard wireless control", so if you are not onboard , forget it.
If you go over the side, it is 5000 feet down and you will never get aboard again. Repeat that mantra , because that concept is the only thing that will keep you safe. Boarding ladders, trailing lines, super PDFs,portable VHF radios and wireless steering remotes will not get you back aboard.
The following vid is a spinnaker takedown on a J boat. Notice the lack of lifelines. jack lines, harnesses, and wireless remotes also the presence of things to trip over, bump into or be knocked down by. These guys KNOW it is 5000 feet down.
I am not trying to be a knowitall, just speading a simple truth.

gary
 
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Oct 26, 2010
1,883
Hunter 40.5 Beaufort, SC
Gary, I absolutely agree with you. I was a bit tounge-in-check about the MOB situtation. It might be nice though for moving up forward on the deck and still having some course control. As I said in a later post I don't think any remote would be of much use in a single handed MOB because punching buttons, trying to control a boat to keep it withing 100 feet and trying to swim to the boat would be impossible except in the most benign conditions.

However, if you click on the handheld transmitter link it does conclude with "waterproof".

I derailed myself by bring up the MOB idea. What I'm more interested is "does it work" and does anyone have any experience with it?
 
Oct 26, 2010
1,883
Hunter 40.5 Beaufort, SC
Thanks Ken, seems like that is the most common other than the Raymarine one. As I read the madman literature it takes a special adapter to use the Madman with the Seatalk SNtg network.
 
Sep 30, 2013
3,538
1988 Catalina 22 North Florida
That's just silly. Countless sailors have gone MOB throughout the course of maritime history, and lived to tell the tale. I daresay preparedness (which you warn AGAINST??) was responsible for many or most of those.

My dad once saved his own bacon with a trailing line, or I would not be here today.


Hi Smokey
If this "Seems like a good idea after our discussions on single handed MOB!"
is the point you are thinking about.
Firstly the remote that you linked mentions "glows in the dark" twice but "waterproof "not at all,
It it is not waterproof it is not going to stop the boat from sailing off to the sunset (without you).
Gunni mentions the Autohelm S100 which is what I have.
As advertised says , "basic onboard wireless control", so if you are not onboard , forget it.
If you go over the side, it is 5000 feet down and you will never get aboard again. Repeat that mantra , because that concept is the only thing that will keep you safe. Boarding ladders, trailing lines, super PDFs,portable VHF radios and wireless steering remotes will not get you back aboard.
The following vid is a spinnaker takedown on a J boat. Notice the lack of lifelines. jack lines, harnesses, and wireless remotes also the presence of things to trip over, bump into or be knocked down by. These guys KNOW it is 5000 feet down.
I am not trying to be a knowitall, just speading a simple truth.

gary
 
Nov 26, 2017
64
Hunter 260 Mille Lacs
Seems to me a logical feature in an autopilot would be a small sensor you clip to yourself, could be Bluetooth or could be RFID. By design it would have a range that covers the boat but only slightly more. The autopilot would constantly be checking for its signal, and if not detected (meaning you’re no longer on the boat!), automatically put the helm hard over and hold it there. Actually, if wind direction is known to the electronics it could just steer to windward. If not, arbitrarily port or starboard. Might be a silly idea with the sheets fixed, but it seems like it would set the boat into a circling/looping pattern of some sort.

If wind direction is available, the pilot could switch hard over the other way when the jib is backed to heave her to.

Depending on wind and current you probably couldn’t swim to the boat in this situation anyway, but if she just “sails right on” you definitely can’t, so maybe it could give a fighting chance. It would certainly take load off if you did happen to catch a trailing line.

Thoughts?
 
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capta

.
Jun 4, 2009
4,766
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
That's just silly. Countless sailors have gone MOB throughout the course of maritime history, and lived to tell the tale. I daresay preparedness (which you warn AGAINST??) was responsible for many or most of those.

My dad once saved his own bacon with a trailing line, or I would not be here today.
Countless versus how many millions? Come on, unless all things are ideal, including an immense amount of good fortune, any hope of surviving falling overboard in inclement conditions outside a heavily sailed area is just wishful thinking.
At 22, in my prime, sailing to Hawaii from Frisco, one day the winds eased in the trades and seas dropped to the point we thought it would be "fun" to step down a few rungs on the food chain and hang on a sheet with lots of knots in it, behind the boat. Not one of us could pull ourselves to the boat, let alone back aboard, without help, and the boat was hardly moving 2 to 2.5 knots.
We had a ladder down, lots of big knots in the line, but the experience was so exhausting that had it been in earnest and there been nobody aboard to help us up the ladder, I have no doubt we all would have died.
Stop fooling yourselves; You have just about the same chances of surviving a 900-foot fall on land as you do recovering from falling overboard alone in inclement weather, at sea.
 
Sep 30, 2013
3,538
1988 Catalina 22 North Florida
You have just about the same chances of surviving a 900-foot fall on land as you do recovering from falling overboard alone in inclement weather, at sea.
No argument whatsoever.

But you aren't saying things like lifelines, jacklines, harnesses, and PFD's are a bad idea, right? (I do realize a PFD only means a slower death in open ocean, but that's not where most of us spend most of our time.)

This is the notion I considered silly. I worded my last post poorly, full apology.
 
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Oct 26, 2010
1,883
Hunter 40.5 Beaufort, SC
I really opened a can of worms with my tounge in cheek comment on MOB. That was not my intent. I really just wanted to know if anyone had any experience with THIS PARTICULAR remote. I'd like to have something to have in hand when I'm away from the helm a little to adjust course a few degrees rather than rushing back to the helm to adjust when I'm single handing. So - BACK ON TOPIC -

I know there is a specific Ray100 remote and others from other aftermarket vendors. but does anyone have any experience with THIS SPECIFIC aftermarket remote for their autopilot?

https://www.i3dgear.com/online-stor...ymarine-Autohelm-SeaTalk-Autopilots-p79308473
 
Sep 12, 2018
20
Beneteau Oceanis 445 Salt Spring Island on my dock
Thanks for the appreciation of our remote control at www.i3DGear.com

The wrist remote control is actually smaller than the fobs other systems use. It is literally the size of a watch and the nice thing is the buttons are all labeled with their functions. No fiddling around trying to find it in your pocket, only to drop it overboard trying to fix a flapping foresail, it's right on your wrist like a watch. Glow in the dark buttons too for night sailing. Waterproof. We've thought of the situations in which you really need remote helm control and having it securely and accessibly on your wrist just seems like the sensible thing.

Although it's not a recommended use! If you did fall MOB, especially from the bow, you'd have barely enough time to pop up and if you'd rehearsed it in your head, quickly hit tack, to send the boat hove-to. It's a long shot, but, seriously, what other option do you have at that moment...... :)
 
Sep 12, 2018
20
Beneteau Oceanis 445 Salt Spring Island on my dock
On the topic of an RFID for MOB detection. We've looked into this as an option for our AutoBuddy remote control. RFID's are ideal in one sense since they use no power themselves. Bluetooth isn't - a constant power draw, so the remote control would need recharging - not ideal for an offshore sailor (not insurmountable, but not ideal).

The problem with RFID's is their limited range. On as much as a 40' boat it would be difficult (even if the RFID scanner was in the middle of the boat) to reliably be seeing the RFID everywhere, leading to false alerts. This would be mitigable by having a timeout period where an RFID/MOB alarm would start sounding for perhaps 30 seconds to a minute wherein it could be canceled from the remote control on your wrist. Otherwise, the autopilot would be shoved either hard over (for motoring), or perform a programmed hove-to maneuver (only useful under sail). Shoving the helm hard over and circling could have any number of bad consequences on a vessel under sail (and if you've fallen overboard, it's likely heavy seas and high winds).

In any event, we are looking into it at i3DGear and I'd sure appreciate people's feedback on whether they'd find this type of device really useful. Enough so that we could invest the time and engineering into making and marketing one that works.