Raymarine 2000+ autopilot

[Nicholas Walsh]

I bought this autopilot two years ago when my trusty Tillermaster died and the last man who repaired them had retired. With the Raymarine, the first time we had choppy weather it began cutting out and resetting to a standby mode. I consulted Raymarine and they said that if the unit loses power even momentarily it resets to standby. What a poor design, considering if one didn't notice the reset it could cause a grounding or jibe or other trouble. Anyway, I soldiered all the connections and it worked OK since. On the last trip, however, we had very heavy rain and the autopilot began cutting out and finally just began blowing fuses, even under no load at all, just standby. I have sent it to Raymarine with the belief that it has gotten moisture in it, and we will see. I will let the group know. So far, though, this unit does no more than what the Tillermaster did and it simply is not nearly as robust a design in terms of failure modes. Is the Simrad Tillerpilot any better?
Nicholas Walsh
111 Commercial Street
Portland Maine 04101
Tel. 207/772-2191
fax 207/774-3940

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[wxt8981]

Hi Nico;
just like to tell you- I too, have a Tillermaster autopilot. I only
wished ALL marine
instruments would be as reliable as this autopilot. I own it -hmm- about
30 years, it
was repaired twice (without cost) and still works!!!
Wilhelm, V-257

Nico Walsh wrote:

 

[rolyatad]

I replaced my Tillermaster with the middle sized Simrad. I have had
no problem with it. The electrical connector supplied with it is
watertight. The unit seems so, too. Spray proof, at least. The
smaller Simrad may have enough power for the Vega,but I bought the
middle one for the possibility of interfacing it with other
instruments, someday. At first it seemed jittery in action compared
to the Tillermaster, but works fine. I got used to it.

Regards, Doug Taylor, #712