Deciding which Autopilot I should get - Need advice

[chowdan]

Well as I get more into cruising and projects ramp down, I am starting to consider buying and installing an autopilot.

Boat is a 16ton 42 foot sailboat, fin keel with skeg hung rudder. I currently have a Navico LA2:12v ram hooked up to the rudder quadrat, but it currently is unusable(have the navico computer). All disconnected so one thing I am planning on doing is pulling the system, testing it and seeing if it even runs.

If it doesn't, I'm open to replacing the system with someone new. I was looking at B&G but thats looking to be roughly $4500 excluding tax(NAC-3, T2 Ram, and Triton2).

Boat runs Lowrance HDS gen2 plotters. Am open to ideas on different brands that would A be just as reliable and B slightly more cost effective?

ALso maybe would holding out to the boat show in Jan be worth the cost savings?

[Paul L]

You didn't mention the type of passage making you plan or if you have a windvane, or how many crew. These all effect what would be a good choice. If it is ocean crossing with 2 crew and no wind vane it's pretty different than a Gulfstream crossing to Bimini.

You can separate the drive unit from the AP controller choice. We use an L&S hydraulic drive that is pretty bullet proof. The AP is a Furuno. Well built unit, not focused on sailboat recreational market, so it is less sailing oriented. I dislike tbe Raymarine units because of the way they fail. They detect a problem, stop steering and set an alarm. To me this can be very dangerous offshore. My Furuno will detect an off course problem, set an alarm and valiantly try to correct course.

I repurposed my old Ray AP as a reasonably easy to install backup, while keeping it stored in a somewhat lightning protected. Maybe you can fix your existi g one and repurpose it as a backup.

[donradcliffe]

before you remove the ram, put 12v across the bypass valve or clutch and touch the motor leads to 12v in both polarities. If the ram moves the helm back and forth its not the problem. The ram can work with a variety of pilots. A hydraulic ram is worth keeping, and using the old one can save you a couple of boat units.

[chowdan]

Thanks guys for the response. I am hoping I'll be able to salvage the ram unit. I need a small child to climb into the lazarette to remove it for testing.

I will likely acquire a windvane down the road but for now we are planning to leave the PNW to Mexico in 1-2 years and will be double handed crew(or solo). From mexico we may jump over to the south Pacific depending on how we feel.

Good to hear that rams can be paired universally!

[AndyEss]

Older AP computers fail in their amplifier units. I’ve come up with a relay bridge circuit that offloads the AP computer amplifier section. The bridge relays are solid state, easy to service if needed. So far I’ve tested it with my old Raymarine 100 and 300 Seatalk AP computers and my bridge circuit works fine. The 100 series computer isn’t even rated for my linear actuator, but the bridge circuit takes care of this.
Maybe your existing AP computer could be salvaged at a low cost? Maybe salvage and keep as a backup?

[Wallaby]

For what it is worth, on a mid-June trip up the center of the Gulf Stream, I was about 80-100 miles offshore, in a massive storm from the SW. Yes, thunderstorms were forecast, but June is the season. For two days, I watched them come across Florida and Georgia on Sirius weather radar. They were never more than a few miles in size and 25 knots.


When the big storm arrived, the genoa was fully furled and the mainsail had two reefs. I didn't have time to put in a third reef. The vessel hit 11.2 knots (not including the current) with wind gusts to 78 knots and breaking waves of six feet or so. My new Raymarine autopilot, with an older linear 2 drive, was incredible.



I was behind the wheel, harnessed in and hanging on. A few times I took the wheel, however, there was no way I could compete with the autopilot's rapid response. I don't know how the Raymarine did it, but the autopilot sailed the boat, bearing off, pointing up, working the waves.

[CarlF]

I have the old Simrad AP42 computer and AC24 control before Navico bought Simrad and pimped them out. This design has its roots in Norwegian North Sea commercial fishing. Your boat could almost get away with the smaller AC12 computer (good up to 40ft) but autopilots aren't a great place to shave corners.

These units are very reliable, work with just about any ram or drive system, and steer my sailboat better and smarter than any autopilot I've ever had. Uncanny how little rudder motion it uses even in a big quartering sea. No fancy colored screens or gee whiz graphics. Interfaces fine to NMEA 2000 to talk to chartplotters. The rest of my electronics are Garmin.

Still available both on Ebay and at a few vendors - usually used but I don't see that as a negative for the computer and control head. Getting quite cheap now.

[Bill whitmore]

Try Alpha Spectra

[CarinaPDX]

I have been looking at H-bridge drivers to do what @AndyEss has done. I need to upgrade the drive for my Raymarine AP but the output would be insufficient and I don't want to burn out the transistors. I think an IBT-2 H-bridge would work but need further research.

Andy: do you have any info as to what you have done?

Although drive units are often bundled with the AP controller, there is no need to stick with a bundle. If your old drive works then keep it; otherwise, you can consider drives from other sources and not just the controller provider. You just need to be certain that the power output of the controller is sufficient to power your drive.

RM has the annoying habit of restricting the power output on their controllers so they can charge (a lot) more for boats that need more power - it does not cost $1k to install larger transistors and heat sinks. I find it difficult to recommend RM for autopilots.

Greg

[SailRedemption]

Originally Posted by chowdan

Well as I get more into cruising and projects ramp down, I am starting to consider buying and installing an autopilot.



Boat is a 16ton 42 foot sailboat, fin keel with skeg hung rudder. I currently have a Navico LA2:12v ram hooked up to the rudder quadrat, but it currently is unusable(have the navico computer). All disconnected so one thing I am planning on doing is pulling the system, testing it and seeing if it even runs.



If it doesn't, I'm open to replacing the system with someone new. I was looking at B&G but thats looking to be roughly $4500 excluding tax(NAC-3, T2 Ram, and Triton2).



Boat runs Lowrance HDS gen2 plotters. Am open to ideas on different brands that would A be just as reliable and B slightly more cost effective?



ALso maybe would holding out to the boat show in Jan be worth the cost savings?

If you're on the west coast, check out Pelagic autopilot. It's a no frills pilot. It has three buttons and is roughly $800 and that came with two wireless remotes. The guy who built it races and a lot of offshore racers use the unit for San Francisco to Hawaii races.

We have it installed on our Kaufman 47 which is a fin keel with skeg hung rudder. It drives a L&S hydraulic ram to a separate tiller arm. Goes straight, that's all we needed for now.

[HBrew]

A second vote for Lecombe & Schmitt hydraulic drives. If you are headed to the south Pacific, that means a 15-30 day passage plus subsequent months/years with very few places where you can easily get replacements/repairs. These hydraulic drives seem very robust to me - I monitored mine as we sailed for 17 days straight and it barely got hot and worked flawlessly - also they won’t crap out on you just because they get a splash of water on them. They’re not cheap and use a little more power but they’re strong and robust.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by chowdan

Thanks guys for the response. I am hoping I'll be able to salvage the ram unit. I need a small child to climb into the lazarette to remove it for testing.

You can test it in place and in fact it's a better test. Just disconnect it from the AP computer and apply power direct from a 12V source as Don suggested. If you can't reach it don't use a small child, I recommend a trained octopus.

Originally Posted by chowdan

Good to hear that rams can be paired universally!

Rams or for that matter any kind of drive can operate from any AP computer with sufficient power for the ram. Some recommend you isolate the clutch output with a solenoid which is a minor fix.

[PaulvR]

I would consider a wind-vane of sorts with a small tiller-pilot on the vane....2 people, Southern Pacific....

[barnakiel]

Get a BIG drive / arm unit. Unless you only expect very light use on short costal sailing.

[evm1024]

I has an old navico AP on my boat. The LA2 ram is actually a re-branded Octopus Ram. Somewhere I have some docs if you need me to dig them up.

I ended up selling all the Navico stuff with the exception of the ram and installed a Raymarine SPX-30. I did also find a New Raymarine pump way cheap and that got plumbed into the system.

Start here: http://octopusdrives.com/products/hy...linear-drives/