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From: Flying_Cloud (no email)
Date: Sun Aug 15 1999 - 13:04:11 EDT
Hi,
Perhaps Sailorman in Ft. Lauderdale - they have so many used and new items
they collect that you can't often get elsewhere. They have been terrific
for hard to find stuff on my boat. My boat has a built-in nu-tone blender
that bit the dust - when I checked into replacing it I learned they sell for
about $250 and I choked - I bought a used one at Sailorman for $15. So
many more essential things I bought there that were impossible or hard to
find.
I have a friend now cruising who had bought a new Roberts Autopilot - he
told me he spent about 10k (could that be true? it seems to be so much! even
if it was with installation which it may or may not have been). Anyway,
whenever he used it he went around and around in circles. He had a BIG
battle with the company and EVENTUALLY after threats of legal action after a
year of time trying to be reasonable- they sent him a new control head which
solved the problem. After hearing my friend's troubles with the company
(versus the product) and if it were an older product I would be inclined to
replace it and put in Autohelm.
Autohelm stood by when after two years the LCD on my speed and depth gauge
which faded and were hard to read; and replaced the guts of the unit outside
of warranty at no charge because they admitted there was a design problem in
those earlier units.
I have a autohelm autopilot 7000 and the thing is nothing short of
delightful; and I paid a fraction of what my friend says he paid for his
Roberts.
For almost a decade I sailed without an autopilot - and having it has added
so much more pleasure to the experience. I am not so tired after a passage
and I can sit off in my bean bad chair and enjoy; or walk around the deck a
bit and bask in the sunshine gleaming and sparking on the seas. I it's like
having an extra crew who never complains - and allow another deck hand for
other tasks sometimes
Sandra
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