Auto Pilot is a wonderful thing if you are cover long stretches of open water. It gives you time to relax, cook, eat, etc. However the most important thing that goes along with it is a good safety harness. I heard a story of a guy who hung on the side of his vessel for three hours unitl the seas got rough enough to throw him back on the deck. If you are only sailing along the coast or in sheltered waters there isn't really a need for auto pilot. If you are sailing and fall off your boat, the boat will eventually turn and stop when your sails luff. With auto pilot your boat will just keep going. I find that a little scarey! You can always set your tiller with a rope, but again, don't fall off while adjusting your rigging. It is an expensive toy that will serve you no purpose sailing close to land.
I do agree on long stretches, it is a god sent, that allows you to do other things and it compensates for your position based on current and wind.
I sail alone often and enjoy sitting at the tiller. It's when I put that darn rope on the tiller to keep her going straight and I am on the bow doing something that scares me. I make sure my hardness is on and I don't have too much play that would allow you to hand off the side. I keep the life line on the short end.
Lots of luck.
I have to respectfully disagree with you Captain. I don't sail a lot of the waters that I used to sail years ago. I sail the river quite a bit and I get out to the bay a few times in the summer and not because I don't want to. The drawbridge that I need to have open, is a hassle on week days with their restricted hours. With that said, I use my autopilot about 99% of the time when I sail, even on the river and I wouldn't sail without it. Like I've said before on this forum, I sail alone with my dog. I never worry about falling overboard. Could I fall overboard? Yes, anyone who is not careful can fall overboard. Accidents can happen to anyone. Some poor guy slipped off a ramp from a boat to the dock in a local marina last year. He probably would have lived if he didn't bang his head on a piling on the way down. This was so tragic and he was very well liked at this marina. I'm not saying that he wasn't careful. This was a freak accident, by all means. Maybe it was his time to go. I haven't fallen overboard yet, for the simple reason that I'm careful, and I don't want to fall overboard. There's an old saying; "One hand for the ship and one hand for yourself." When I worked for a power company, I worked around switch gear and lines with voltages at 13,800 and higher. You look at it, and you know it's alive, yet it's very still and appears to be dead, but yet it is alive and deadly if you touch it. So,--you're careful and you make darn sure that you never come in contact with it without the proper equipment, or you'll be burnt to a crisp. To me,-- being on my boat with an autopilot is the same thing. The danger is present, and it's always there, but if you're careful and hold on, you'll be OK. If you feel comfortable with a rope tied around you and secured to the ship, then by all means use it. I think that Tristin Jones would sometimes trail a long line with knots tied in it just in case he fell overboard, he may be able to grab on to it and save himself, and he couldn't swim a stroke! I don't know but maybe I'm some kind of a nut because I've never had any fear of the water. My friend and I used to swim across Sabbatia Lake in my home town of Taunton Ma., when we were 12 years old. We also once, swam across the Cape Cod Canal and back, at the mouth of the Canal near the Maritime Academy. So maybe that's why I don't fear the water today.
Joe
