Have a networked EV100 and works great when raising/lowering sails, popping below for a visit to the head. Would not go back.
What's the real value of an autopilot on a sailboat?
- Thread starter Wm. Gill
- Start date
What rule of thumb or alarm do you have to make sure that you are still safely on course or have not rolled out of a cat nap into a deep sleep. After all it's not much different than setting your cruise control for the legal speed and not paying attention to a new condition on the road .
Tesla?
But serisously, there are some conditions where the AP will sail better than you can. In short shallow rollers down wind, it settled into a rhythm of constant correction as the boat would go up and down the waves. I would hate to have to follow that manually. Secondly, I love to be a passenger on my own boat. Just one more layer of relaxation in the right conditions. And lastly as others have mentioned, having a second hand can be critical at times when single handing.
A realistic scenario. The AP is on an autoroute where it will change course at the waypoint. Crew is maintaining a watch by standing and looking over the dodger. The boat reaches the waypoint and makes an unexpected sharp turn. Crew falls down and is injured.
Unless someone is standing at the MFD and watching the distance to the next waypoint, the exact time of the course change is unknown. Especially if the course change occurs in open waters or some distance from any buoy or mark. While someone is on watch, there may be others who are below deck and unaware of the relative position of the waypoint, the turn is sudden and unannounced. The evening's dinner is now strewn across the cabin.
Hi Dave,
I understand your scenario.
IMHO one of the crew should be the watch captain or navigator and is responsible for knowing where the boat is, and when a course change will be made. That crew has the duty to notify other crew about the impending course change. What if there is a large submerged rock along the course? If the crew is standing around watching, and no one is paying attention to where the boat is going, the AP will drive right into the rock. Same situation. SOMEONE needs to be responsible for knowing where the boat is, where it's going, and when it will change course.
Note that the crew doesn't need to stuck watching the plotter. A check every 10-15 minutes, or even every 30-60 minutes should be sufficient (if they are paying attention). Every modern plotter has the ability to display time and distance to waypoint. When the time and distance are less than 15 minutes that crew has ample time to notify other crew members.
I do prefer the autopilots that beep and won't make a course change until the crew makes an acknowledgement. IMO that is more prudent and seamanlike.
Barry
I understand your scenario.
IMHO one of the crew should be the watch captain or navigator and is responsible for knowing where the boat is, and when a course change will be made. That crew has the duty to notify other crew about the impending course change. What if there is a large submerged rock along the course? If the crew is standing around watching, and no one is paying attention to where the boat is going, the AP will drive right into the rock. Same situation. SOMEONE needs to be responsible for knowing where the boat is, where it's going, and when it will change course.
Note that the crew doesn't need to stuck watching the plotter. A check every 10-15 minutes, or even every 30-60 minutes should be sufficient (if they are paying attention). Every modern plotter has the ability to display time and distance to waypoint. When the time and distance are less than 15 minutes that crew has ample time to notify other crew members.
I do prefer the autopilots that beep and won't make a course change until the crew makes an acknowledgement. IMO that is more prudent and seamanlike.
Barry
OP didn’t say if he has a spinnaker, but my AP is really handy when I am trying to set up my a-spin When sailing solo.
Greg
Greg
Barry we can go round and round on all kinds of scenarios. The vast majority of my sailing is on open deep water (i.e. way over 100 ft). Watch standing needs to match the conditions. In the middle of Lake Ontario with no boats visible on the horizon, AIS, or Radar and the water is 300' deep. Watch standing gets a little relaxed.
Going down the ICW in S Florida and watch standing is quite vigilant. Between idiot boaters and shoals, paying attention is important and the AP is seldom used.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,771
No Gil I do not think you are missing much.
What ever you do about an Auto Pilot, how it is used is pretty constant. You can have it follow a magnetic course, or a series of way points that are a string of different magnetic courses. Handy if you want the boat to go from point A to B or B-C then C-D. If you do this in a power/or sail under auxiliary power boat it will do it (pretty much) without attention. You still are required to be on look out.
Here is a video that happened a couple of years ago here in the PacificNW. It shows what happens when the skipper fails to keep a lookout.
If you have a sail boat and you use the sails as your source of power, you will need to be active, trimming the sails, in order to keep the boat going. It is not a set and forget option in most sailing situations.
The option to use the AP as a tool to maintain a wind angle is an interesting tool (not unlike a wind vane). We, here in the PacificNW, have a large body of water known as the Strait of Juan DFuca. I choose it as it is a water you can cross West to East and most days the wind is constant (out of the west blowing towards the east). Setting the sails and pointing the boat towards your intended next port seems straight forward.
Yes the shore line under those mountains is 20mi away.
On this day had I set my AP and sails for the breeze and let the AP take over keeping the wind angle in the sails we would have ended up, over the next 6 hours, about 2 miles off the shore line beneath the mountains. The wind clocked around from the W to the ESE during that period.
Whether you use "Wind Angle", "Magnetic Bearing" or "waypoint routing" the AP is a tool that can aid your cruising or cause serious trouble. It is the Skipper that runs the show. Since I learned that you point the boat in the direction you intend and then set/trim the sails to take you there wind angle and waypoint routing are not relevant tools in my cruising. Only you can decide what is relevant for you to use.
I have the EV100 installed. It serves as a cost effective tool. Don't put a magnet or metal mass near the compass sensor (the thing that looks like the space ship Enterprise).
Your AP will begin to make your boat do Crazy Ivans. The voice of experience.
I think you have almost all of the reasons that should be enough. But there are a couple not covered very well.
Depending where you live, imagine sailing up the coast with the wind at around 35' apparent. The first valuable point is you can see your run line vector and adjust the heading on the AP based on the vector so you get passed the point with what ever clearance you feel you need. Imagine also the wind creeps around slightly in your favor. Sailing to a wind angle will allow the boat to creep up wind as the wind changes and then you can get possibly a more comfortable Clearnce of the point in front, or change to say 40 degrees and go faster all the time knowing you have you COG vector still good or place a waypoint just off the point and sail to it. Then imagine there is a strong set (current) at right angles and your trying to get to a specific waypoint you have marked in the middle of the channel. Then you can sail or motor if need be to that waypoint irrespective of the set, or you are trying to follow a specific set of leads into somewhere. Maybe you came into a tricky place in the day and now you need to leave, you can follow the same track, knowing you at least made it in, so should make it out. You can take the technology a long way much further than anything noted here. You can take a weather report along with you boats specific characters load that up in your networked plotter and it can plot the fastest route in the "expected forecast" for your AP to follow, you can have MOB and a networked plotter take you back to where you lost her over the side - assuming you wanted to All things can be done manually of course, but it can be interesting to take note of your SOG while you are steering then put the boat on auto pilot and see what the SOG is. A decent AP setup and networked can if you spend some time tuning it perform better than the helms person in certain conditions especially if they are not 110 percent focused while lifting there right arm for the beer. Most cruisers do not take advantage of the technology that they have. You need time, interest, patience and a desire, to do it, otherwise it can be just another pain in the a...... Oh one last point for newby's if you can't sail manually you shouldn't be using AP either. Enjoy I wouldn't be without mine.
Depending where you live, imagine sailing up the coast with the wind at around 35' apparent. The first valuable point is you can see your run line vector and adjust the heading on the AP based on the vector so you get passed the point with what ever clearance you feel you need. Imagine also the wind creeps around slightly in your favor. Sailing to a wind angle will allow the boat to creep up wind as the wind changes and then you can get possibly a more comfortable Clearnce of the point in front, or change to say 40 degrees and go faster all the time knowing you have you COG vector still good or place a waypoint just off the point and sail to it. Then imagine there is a strong set (current) at right angles and your trying to get to a specific waypoint you have marked in the middle of the channel. Then you can sail or motor if need be to that waypoint irrespective of the set, or you are trying to follow a specific set of leads into somewhere. Maybe you came into a tricky place in the day and now you need to leave, you can follow the same track, knowing you at least made it in, so should make it out. You can take the technology a long way much further than anything noted here. You can take a weather report along with you boats specific characters load that up in your networked plotter and it can plot the fastest route in the "expected forecast" for your AP to follow, you can have MOB and a networked plotter take you back to where you lost her over the side - assuming you wanted to
All things can be done manually of course, but it can be interesting to take note of your SOG while you are steering then put the boat on auto pilot and see what the SOG is. A decent AP setup and networked can if you spend some time tuning it perform better than the helms person in certain conditions especially if they are not 110 percent focused while lifting there right arm for the beer. Most cruisers do not take advantage of the technology that they have. You need time, interest, patience and a desire, to do it, otherwise it can be just another pain in the a...... Oh one last point for newby's if you can't sail manually you shouldn't be using AP either. Enjoy I wouldn't be without mine.
In my experience, with the AP I have, it does not sail the boat better than my first mate or I on a broad reach with with quartering 4-5 ft seas. The VMG is not optimum as the boat yaws along. The AP cannot anticipate as the boat slews off a six foot sea and heads up, that it will accelerate higher & go off course. Compensation is slow, and then we do it all again a few seconds later. I honestly don’t trust it to sail the best line in those conditions. Helm must steer lower as the boat begins to slew to stay on course. Th AP cannot do that. Motoring or sailing in mild conditions with low seas, however, it’s joy and a wonder to use.
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In general I think you are correct. But I would also say that not all auto pilots are created equal. I have a Pelagic tiller pilot and it does a remarkably good job on courses that my Raymarine wheel pilot on a previous boat, or my Raymarine tiller pilot on this boat, simply couldn’t touch.
Here is a link to an article that analysis the rules involve in this collision. The ferry was clearly the give-way vessel and the trawler was stand-on so the burden was on the ferry to avoid the collision... Except that a rule higher in the list states that all vessels must keep watch. The trawler captain was in the head with no one on watch so he received the bigger portion of the blame even though he was the stand-on vessel.
Interestingly, if he had been in the wheelhouse watching the show, He would have had a smaller portion of the blame than the ferry.
If he had been in the wheelhouse watching the show and made an emergency turn to starboard to avoid the collision and then filed a complaint to the USCG, he would have had not blame at all and the ferry captain would have probably lost his license permanently instead of just a two-week suspension.
I have an AP and it is interfaced with the chart plotter and the wind instruments so it can steer a compass course, follow a route of many waypoints or steer to the apparent wind. Each has its advantages and disadvantages but none of them allow for unattended boating. Very high in the rules hierarchy is rule 5: "Keeping Watch). Basically, if you are not keeping watch, you are at fault no matter how many of the higher rules the other guy breaks.
Yesterday, I finally got a chance to actually sail my new main and genoa. I was on a close hauled course in 10-12 knots and needed to get my benchmarks for the jib lead cars. Since I was sailing by myself I could not steer and also spend the time it took to look at the sails from different angles and do the nessisary tweaking. I hand steered to a good starting point with the basic heading and trim then set the AP to steer to apparent wind. Then I would look at trim and make little adjustments then adjust the appearant wind angle. rinse and repeat. I ended up with all three sets of tell-tales flying and the boat sailing at 39º on port and 37º on starboard.