New Autopilot

[YVRguy]

So in preparation for our 2nd year of sailing my buddy and I had a new Raymarine Autopilot installed in our H34 last week. We were so jazzed to try it out that we went for a sail in the torrential rain yesterday. It was worth it! It's very easy to use and after days of nonstop motoring to Desolation Sound last year it's going to be a huge help. I will definitely be taking advantage of the opportunity to single-hand this year as well.

Just wanted to share this in case some of you are debating getting one.

 

[Hello Below]

Doug, if your sails are reasonably balanced, an autopilot does very well station keeping in the wind vane mode also.

 

[Bill Roosa]

and the "tack" (+10 and +1 buttons at the same time) is a real single hander feature. Does take some practice though as you have to get the sails balanced (more or less) in rapid fashion. I've found that if you get the jib rough tacked first then rough trim the main with the travler and then find the best heading for the new tack and then fine tune the jib and main works best.

 

[kloudie1]

When I bought my boat in '91, autopilot was on the list of "must haves" along with roller furling jib. I had done some 400-600 mile trips on a friend's boat that had neither; when I went to buy, I knew I had to have something to relieve the "Tyranny Of The Helm". The autopilot is a fine addition.. almost indispensable on those long calm motor trips.

 

[Claude L.-Auger]

Doug, I have now had an AP since 1997 and would not even consider any passage without one !!! Even short ones. I single-hand most times and it's a real fatigue-saver. In fact I just returned from a 1000 miles trip bringing a friend's boat back from the Caribbean to the Bahamas. Just the 2 of us on board, sailing non-stop most of the way, and we basically touch the wheel only for pleasure or when coming into anchorages once in the Bahamas. Enjoy it, it's a great no-beer-drinking crew !

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Just wanted to share this in case some of you are debating getting one.

Mind you, they can also be extremely dangerous if you're in Howe Sound and ...................

your sails are well balanced,

you're on a nice beam reach,

you've got about 10 knots of wind,

there's not a cloud in the sky

it's about 23 C. (73 F)

you're day dreaming ...............................

and a BC Ferry roars past out of Horseshoe Bay doing 22 knots .

 

[zeehag]

i am fortunate to have a hydraulic auto pile it on mine--is electric assist, sips juice, and is steady on watch.
i have cruised in sloops and cutters with wheel mount autopile it, and there is no comparison. ifyou have a choice of product to buy for long term cruises and long passages, go with the pricier model, th e hydraulic..... for most uses, wheel mount is great.... is good for daysailing, shorter passages of 3 days or so , as ye tend to grow grouchy if hand steering that long..lol... and can be a great help. when this goes wrong, life ends... belt jumps off track in dire need situations, it wanders 5-10 degrees as if yawing on its course....and doesnt handle sailing well.....(brag time here....set hdl and go despite sailing...no wandering unless no wind at all.....)

 

[Dan Johnson]

Doug, I found that, when my old 4000 died, single-handing the boat without an autopilot was a giant PITA.

On the Chesapeake in the summer, with the wind on the nose or no wind at all, an autopilot is a necessity as one tries to hide under the shade of the bimini while time between one location and another.

As Ralph pointed out, just watch out for those bigger than you!

PS: I have my control head below the aft pocket, closer to the helm seat.

 

[YVRguy]

Mind you, they can also be extremely dangerous if you're in Howe Sound and ................... your sails are well balanced, you're on a nice beam reach, you've got about 10 knots of wind, there's not a cloud in the sky it's about 23 C. (73 F) you're day dreaming ............................... and a BC Ferry roars past out of Horseshoe Bay doing 22 knots .

Haha! Point taken!

 

[BarryL]

Hey,

Can you tell me anything about the installation? I just bought the Ray 100 Evo wheel pilot and I plan on installing it myself. Easy, hard? Any 'gotcha's to worry about?

Thanks,
Barry

 

[jmce1587]

YVR - I just had the EV100 installed this past Friday and the weather went south on me in the Houston area. Looking forward to taking out this week and playing with it. Any quirks you discovered while breaking it in?

Barry L - had a Ray Marine Rep install it because of warranty concerns. Took 6 hours on my H31 including NEMA talk to my GPS. Good luck.

 

[jacktheflyer]

EV100 installation

Hey,

Can you tell me anything about the installation? I just bought the Ray 100 Evo wheel pilot and I plan on installing it myself. Easy, hard? Any 'gotcha's to worry about?

Thanks,
Barry

Barry
I installed an EV100 onto a 37' cat with wheel pilot. The installation was simple and straight forward. Biggest problem was running a large enough cable to the EV100 to limit voltage drop to the actuator. When it was ll mounted per the instructions, I just plugged it in, configured the P70 and off it went. Head and shoulders above the previous Raymarine offering.

I do have a continuing issue that remains unresolved. The existng instruments on the boat are raymarine ST60 wind, depth and speed coupled to a c80 chart plotter. There is an interface that will connect the seatalk and the seatalk ng protocols and that works Ok too. However when the speed instrument is connected into the network the AP works very hard maintaining a course and often over compensates. This is due to the eV100 using the speed to calculate gain on the rudder response. I think it is a porblem because the paddle wheel never works. For information only in case you have a similar combination of instruments and find the same problem. It took me a long time to find where the issue was..

regards
John

 

[NoAgenda]

I am installing one on my cat 30. So far I have about 5 hours into the install, this is the first time installing a auto pilot. All I have left to do is run the power cable from the motor to the ACU and run 12v to the ACU. I forgot to get the wire for the ACU.

 

[dlewis812]

tiller pilot

installed wheel pilot on my cat 30 last year - life changing!

i also have a cat 25 and am now considering a tiller pilot. just wondering how well they work?

 

[kloudie1]

Dlewis812.. I have used one a lot on a Stiletto catamaran.. it works very well handling the tiller. It likes the sails to be balanced and trimmed well. It gets a bit befuddled when the boat is above 10 kts, but around that point, driving is enough fun that I don't mind Otto relinquishing the helm!.. Does an excellent job motoring on those light/no air days.

 

[fox islander]

...after sailing (various boats) for 20 years without...I installed a X5 on my C-30 last year...I would never, ever not have an AP. It's the best single piece of equipment I've ever put on a boat.