Time to replace
Dec.27, 2000 Dear Eric, My friend Bill on Muy Caro had a Benmar unit that I helped him rebuild up the Rio David in Panama. I was amazed that he was able to get the parts for it. Since he was only contemplating a voyage back to the U.S. before selling the boat "the path of least resistance " worked for him. If however you are considering keeping the boat for an extended period or making long passages short handed where continuing reliability is an issue the path of more work and expense is where you should be heading. I'm assuming the unit is nearly as old as the boat. Auto pilots are one of those machines that live in the bowels of the boat and seldom if ever recieve any maitenance. Because of the age of the unit reliability in the corrosive marine environment becomes suspect, especially if the unit was used a lot. Even the drive motors will wear out. Your also going to find that a new unit with its own dedicated electronic compass, whether or not it is slaved to a GPS unit, means more " hands off " time for who ever is on the helm. I have a couple of friends who had Robertson units and their only complaint about them was that they used a plastic bushing on the drive unit where the actuator arm was linked to the quadrant and that tended to wear out rather quickly, so they had to carry plenty of spares and it was a regular maitenance chore to check this bushing before every long passage. I understand that Robertson has addressed this issue in the newer units by upgrading the bushing to a longer lasting material, but I can't recall if they went to a scintered bronze or something else off of the top of my head. Obviously Robertson can tell you. As for ourselves we have an Autohelm 6000 on The Legend, and as I've mentioned in previous posts I can recommend it, principally because of the excellent factory support we got when our old unit wore out and it was time to replace it. Jim Ogles at Autohelm did an excellent job giving us advice and helping solve the problem. Autohelm is currently owned by Raytheon and they are intigrating the line under their own product line and marque. I hope this helps. Fair winds. Brian Pickton of BeneteauOwners.net Aboard The Legend, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
