New Autopilot Suggestions

[planoron]

OK,,,I am sure this will generate a lot of opinions and hopefully so

We purchased our boat a year ago and it seems that the old st4000 is giving up the ghost. Currently I have the unit in for testing. I also have the raymarine depth, speed, and wind units. The boat is 38' on a lake and although AP is not really a necessity it would be nice to sit in the bird seat and sip my beer solo. While I doubt that this will be my last boat and expect to trade up at the coast, I have always gone the extra mile in maintaining my toys. My question to everyone is:

Should the unit be shot, should I just buy another used and slap it in knowing that I have prolonged the inevitable or do I look at bringing it all up to speed? Wheel steering is fine along with depth and speed. ST60 Wind unit I have to look at still.

Given that I am open to finding out my best bang for the buck.

Thanks in advance everybody

 

[jdhohmann]

I made the same decision about 4 years ago, since I had all Raymarine st60 stuff, I decided that in order to have the least amount of "seaTalk" trouble I went with the x10 autopilot and C90W chartplotter.... This stuff works incredible together.. Yes other people's stuff like Garmin and such will work and talk to each other and to Raymarine, but not nearly as well as having all the same gear, and using Raymarine's "BACKBONE", the installation was flawless and easy.. Installed it all myself.....

 

[BarryL]

Hey,

Some questions: How much do you want to spend, and how simple do you want the integration?

Your boat is really too big for a wheel pilot. You really need a below decks unit. The problem is that below decks AP's are expensive. To install one will probably cost around $5K.

Wheel pilots are much cheaper. You can probably find another 4000 unit for a few hundred, install it, and use it on calm conditions. The new wheel pilots (EV) cost under $1500 and can easily interface your existing raymarine instruments. The problem is that the EV unit is still too small for your boat.

You can also install the 'Captain' wheel pilot. This is beefier than the Raymarine unit but won't interface to any other instruments.

Last year I installed the new Ray Evo wheel pilot. It works well upwind and Ok downwind. As long as I keep my sails trimmed the pilot does fine. I was able to interface it to my ST50 wind and speed. I also have it connected to my Garmin 740S plotter and Simrad VHF/AIS. Everything works well together and I'm happy with that.

Good luck,
Barry

 

[planoron]

Jdhomann, Thanks for the info. Sounds like the solution I am looking for. Currently I just want to relax flying solo awhile and there is really no need to integrate to a chart plotter with way points. Just hold the course for an hour. BTW, I really like the color scheme u have


Barry, as always I want champagne on a beer budget. The fact is this boat will probably remain on the lake so the wheel drive should never be stressed. If we get the swells to do that I am afraid I have bigger problems. I guess I am wondering if the cost to fix everything up were to be 40% of the upgrade I would probably look into replacement within the year and look at wireless technology.