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Date Posted: - Tuesday - 02/ 8/11 - 11:35pm
Author: Ben Millett
Subject: What Auto Pilot for M40 is best

I am getting ready for a cruise with the family and I am thining an auto pilot might add a bit more comfort/saftey to the experience. Does anyone know the best one (and most affordable) for the M 40?

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Replies:

[> Monitor -- gitano, - Wednesday - 02/ 9/11 - 3:05pm

A Scanmar, Monitor windvane, hands down.
http://www.selfsteer.com/


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[> [> Autopilot/autohelm -- Bruce, - Wednesday - 02/ 9/11 - 3:52pm

If you want to be connected to your chart plotter and gps, you can connect a Raymarine or Simrad tiller pilot to the monitor windvane, and it will use far less power than a conventional autopilot connected to the wheel. I would use the Simrad over Raymarine, but they are both exceptional.


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[> [> Auto Pilot -- James (m-31" Pyxis"), - Wednesday - 02/ 9/11 - 4:04pm

To add to Bruce's suggestion. I use an Aries IV (not available new) and a tiller pilot. The combination is amazing. The wind vane can't be beat when sailing it's only short coming is very light down wind air. The tiller pilot is attached to the wind vane sensory blade for motoring and light air down wind. Two of the advantages of this combo are low power consumption the tiller pilot only uses enough amps to drive the sensor not the wheel and economy. I found a good used wind vane for under a $ 1000.00 and the tiller pilot 1000 is $450. So far I have put about 2500 miles on this system most of that off shore. I have not had a single glich. I am buying a second tillerpilot as a back up before I do any crossings just in case. I Think this is the same system Randall is using on Murre.


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[> [> [> Monitor -- Bruce, - Wednesday - 02/ 9/11 - 8:16pm

James is correct. Randall from M31 #95, Murre, uses a Scanmar Monitor windvane with a Raymarine tiller pilot attached. Randall reports that he absolutely loves it. In his own words "it saved my A** on more than one occasion"


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[> [> [> [> M31 #150 -- gitano, - Wednesday - 02/ 9/11 - 8:18pm

Oops. #95 is my boat.


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[> A few more questions about auto pilots -- Ben, - Wednesday - 02/ 9/11 - 8:26pm

Thanks for the suggestions. Here are a few more specifics about "Dream Weaver" and our cruise that might help me narrow it down.

1. I was not planning on getting a wind vane as I have two solar panels/dingy davits and not sure if I could fit the vane.

2. I have hydrolic steering (DreamWeavers deck is flush and has been redone with the wheel on the port side of the cabin) and the boat holds course well when I balance the sails with the hydrolic steering. Of course this may be different in rougher weather.

3. I really wanted a simple system that will help when the boat is motoring.

4. We are heading to the Bahamas for about 7 months and it will be very little off shore sailing.

5. Finances are a real concern as we are trying to build up a cruising kity for our family of 4.

6. What bare bones system would be best or am I being nieve about my approach?


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[> [> Hydraulic Steering -- Bruce, - Wednesday - 02/ 9/11 - 10:25pm

Hi Ben,
Probably the Simrad autopilot would be best then. Especially since you have solar panels to keep the batteries topped off. If you have existing Raymarine stuff you should probably stay with Raymarine. It depends if you want your electronics to talk to one another, and what chartplotting software you are using. They can all talk to one another via NMEA 0183, ethernet, or NMEA 2000, but may need an extra component depending if you have a Seatalk (Raymarine)network or simrad. Here are a couple of links. These should point you in the right direction
http://www.yachtworks.net/Store/Autopilots.htm
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f55/hydraulic-steering-and-autopilot-maintenance-30688.html


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[> [> [> Thanks Bruce -- Ben, - Thursday - 02/10/11 - 8:00am

I guess I will look into the Simrad's. I just have a small Seatek chartploter so I do not think I will get all the electronics integrated. I just want to find my course and press the button. I know they have different units depending on tonnage. Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Ben


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[> [> [> [> How about CPT autopilt units? -- Ben Millett, - Thursday - 02/10/11 - 2:41pm

Does anyone know anything about these units (CPT autopilots) and if they would be a good fit for a M 40 with hydrolic steering?


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[> I picked up a used Autohelm Analog from Ebay -- Paul M31 #106, - Thursday - 02/10/11 - 4:22pm

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a323/Dutchessc22/Trip/?action=view¤t=DSC02820.jpg


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[> [> How do you like it? -- Ben, - Thursday - 02/10/11 - 9:25pm

I took a look at the autohelm analog you got and it looks like the same idea as the CPT. Would you recomend this type of auto pilot for Mariners?


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[> [> [> It works very good -- Paul M31 #106, - Friday - 02/11/11 - 6:34pm

It is a strong and reliable system and I use it a lot - I singlehand 99% of the time.

Haven't tried it in bigger winds (excess of 35kts) but I would think it could handle it just fine.

Mine also has a windvane servo to steer off te wind rather than on a course. Haven't tried that yet.

Yes, I would recommend it.


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[> [> [> [> I guess I will go shopping -- Ben, - Saturday - 02/12/11 - 12:48am

The picture of your autohelm analog looks similar to the CPT and I am probably going to get this style of autopilot. Seems simpler and less dollars. I will poke around the internet at the autohelm analogs to. Thanks.


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[> Do note that I have worm gear steering, not hydraulic. -- Paul M31 #106, - Tuesday - 02/15/11 - 7:14pm

But if the forces and number of turns (1.8 from midships each way on mine) are equal, then the old Autohelm will do just fine.


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[> [> I am on hold -- Ben, - Thursday - 02/17/11 - 9:02pm

I am on hold now as we will not be leaving until the end of this years hurricane season. Just dream shopping. I have two young kids (4 & 7) and a wife who has very limited sailing experience. She has lived on the boat, but not much help when I really need it. So to make the cruise successful I think biting the bullet and spending a couple grand on a new unit might make a big difference in our cruise and saftey. Right now I am leaning towards the CPT units for their simplicity and powerful drive engine (She weighs 27,000 lbs). Simple but quality systems are the philosophy for the work I have put in to Dream Weaver. I will keep looking so if you run across any deals or have more suggestions let them rip. I saw the photos of your boat and read the post on Sleep/Mexico. Sounds like a great adventure. I hope to be right behind you.


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[> We Like Our Raymarine Pilot -- Jared Kibele (Jared Kibele), - Thursday - 02/24/11 - 12:01am

Architeuthis (M31 #9) has a Raymarine S1 autopilot and (as of last week) an old Aries windvane. You can see photos of the auto pilot installation with descriptions here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kibele/sets/72157608829826444/

Architeuthis still has the worm gear steering so we went with the rotary drive unit. For hydraulic steering, you'd obviously need a different drive unit. I have no complaints about our pilot. It has steered us through some unpleasant following seas with not so carefully balanced sails for hours on end without complaint and probably steered a lot straighter than I could have myself. When I first installed it, I did have to spend several hours tweaking all the various settings to get it to steer well in following seas but, once I got it set, I haven't had to mess with it since.

Power consumption varies considerably with conditions. Going upwind in fairly flat water, the boat doesn't need much steering input so Otto (as we call the autopilot) doesn't draw much current - I'd say somewhere around 2 amps if you average it out. In lumpy following seas, on the other hand, I'd say it's more like 4 or 5 amps. We posted a video on our blog that contains a couple clips of Otto steering the boat in following seas and you can see that the wheel is in pretty much constant motion: http://www.svarchiteuthis.com/2011/02/architeuthis-movie.html We have two 130 watt solar panels and found that with constant use of Otto and the the fridge, we can't keep the batteries fully charged. That's why we decided to add the Aries for our crossing to the Marquesas. Well, that and we got a great deal on the Aries.

While I haven't had any direct experience with the CPT pilot, I would worry that it might not be adjustable enough to get dialed in enough for steering in following seas.


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[> [> Costs? -- Ben, - Friday - 02/25/11 - 8:06am

Thanks Jared for the info. How much did it cost to get your system put together? I will check out the video.


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[> [> [> Cost -- Jared Kibele (Jared Kibele), - Sunday - 02/27/11 - 9:30pm

I'm really bad at remembering exactly how much things cost. I think it's a protection mechanism. I think the whole setup ended up being in the $2500 range. We got a big discount because of a friend that was working at a marine electronics shop. I did the installation myself. I took a long time but I think it was time well spent because I know more about the installation now than I would if I'd paid someone to do it and it saved me a lot of money.

If you want to figure out the cost, the photo set I linked to has all of the Raymarine part numbers for the stuff I used. I think I have the information in there about where I got the sprocket for the wheel shaft as well. With that info and a few google searches, you should be able to come up with a total cost.


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[> It seems more responsive than my Autohelm -- Paul M31 #106, - Friday - 02/25/11 - 11:21am

I had seen the series of pics about the installation before I ended up with the autohelm and always wondered if the systems would operate equally well. From seeing the videao, I am now convinced that the Raymarine installation is more robust and faster.

Not sure about the power useage, though - the Autohelm pulls about 4A when "running", but it does not do as much of that running as compared to the video. But then, you were saying this was on a run.

I don't think the Autohelm will be able to keep course on a run with following seas.


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[> Ray Marine -- Brian, - Friday - 02/25/11 - 1:26pm

Ben
I had a 2004 Ray Marine Autopilot. An SG3 course computer W/ Type II Mechanical Rotary Drive on a Kelly Peterson 44. It was amazing how well it worked. The computer learns as it goes. It was not inexpensive.
I am in the process of installing a Raymarine X-10 Core Pack Smartpilot ($1200) on my M36 with a ST 70 Control/ Display ($500). It also is a below decks Autopilot. I am able to use the existing drive motor as it looks to be in excellent shape. Wiring Kit ($90).
The boat has a worm gear steering system. The last Raymarine AP that I had worked so well, and in very difficult conditions... 30KTs broad reach with 8-10 following seas, that I wanted to stay with the same compsny. It should be up and running in a week or two, I will let you know the results.
Good Luck,

Brian Gran Mariner 1973 M36 Hull 9
661-713-4371


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