Bill, I bought an ST-1000 for my Catalina 22 this summer. Your company's service people have been great to me so far, answering questions and fixing a few little things that weren't quite right. Anyhow, my question for you is about the little plastic button on the end of the drive rod on my ST-1000 . I snapped one earlier this summer. It was a windy day, and we were sailing down wind with plenty of sail, and not perfectly balanced, and the end snapped off of the threads. We were on a week long cruise, and I epoxied it, and had 2 replacements within a few days from a Raymarine dealer, on the Patuxent River in Maryland. My question to you is, is this suppose to be a type of "shear pin", that is suppose to break if the load gets too heavy? I was going to modify it by running a stainless steel screw though it and making a bushing for the hollow inside, but then I realized that maybe it was suppose to fail, to protect the mechanism of the autopilot. Could you check on this for me? Also, I got the 4 button remote, when I bought the autopilot. I had it out in a thunderstorm, and then the buttons failed. After it dried out, they all worked except one. I sent it for repair, which your people did very quickly, and for free, but it still is a little questionable. Also, I'm a little concerned that it couldn't take being in the rain. Do you think that I am using it too hard? I must say that the way that GPS can be plugged into the autopilot is just great. My kids love it, and I don't think I will ever stop being amazed at the thought that my little boat is being guided by satellites in space. The autopilot has brought us many hours of relaxing sailing, and we are now going further than we ever have before. Thanks for participating in this forum, Aldo