pivoting wheel on a new beneteau

[J-P]

How difficult is it to fit an auto-pilot on a sailboat such as beneteau 323(or 373) with the new pivoting steering wheel? Is it a lot more expensive than with a standard wheel?Thank youJ-P

 

[SandyJ]

much more expensive

...my B dealer quoted a price of about $6,000.00 because the new wheel requires below decks autopilot...compared to about $2,000.00 for wheel autopilot...not sure the 323 is for me after all.

 

[Dr. Bob Brown]

Old Engineering Dictum

Reminds one of the old Engneering Dictum: "Better" is the enemy of "Good Enough."

 

[Gerry Gilbert]

You get what you pay for

I installed a Raymarine ST600+ Smart Pilot below-deck pilot on my B373 myself for $2700. It required about 11 hours of labor to install because the dealer hadn't provided me the owners manual and I didn't know which wires in factory harness did what! I could install the next one in half the time. It works much better than the wheel pilot did on my previous sailboat. Local installers are typically more reasonable than dealers - but both charge enough to cover service call-backs.