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Subject: [worldcruising] Tiller autopilot
From: A0884958, Dave (wdr@XXX.XXX)
Date: Tue Jan 16 2001 - 04:05:44 EST
To my knowledge you are limited to either Autohelm or Simrad. If there
other tiller pilots available I am not aware of them. I had an ST2000
Autohelm for 5 years on a Beneteau First 345 with no problems. However,
I believe 7 tons is out of limits for any tiller pilot. They are made
for much lighter displacement boats.
Just a suggestion but on heavy boats with a tiller I have seen a ram
such as is used on the quadrant of much larger boats mounted on pins
from the tiller to the coaming. It seemed to work well and at least
the ram was made to handle the loads. The Autohelm ST1000 is rated
for 4,500 lbs. and the 2000 for 10,000 but experience is that is maximum
rating while the working load should be half that.
Another thought for you consideration. When I engineered the autopilot
on our current boat I put in 2 rams with 1 pulling, 1 pushing. The
load was thus halved and in 6500 nm of blue water sailing including a
F9 gale for 3 days we have had no problems. Could you use 2 tiller
pilots, 1 on either side of the tiller.
This months Pratical Sailor has a review of the Simrad and Autohelm.
Regards
Dave Richardson
wdr@XXX.XXX
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