Hi Bradley- My two bits for what it is worth- I would put money into an autopilot before many of the systems on my boat. In fact, I just bought a new one (Raymarine wheel pilot) because the old one was becoming unreliable and I want to know it will work when I need it. I sail short handed or single handed most of the time, and I use the autopilot all the time. I did not think it was a big deal before I bought my first boat, but it has turned out to be really useful. If I need to adjust something, I like being able to set the autopilot so I can be distracted from steering for a few minutes. My wife loves it because she doesn’t have to steer when I need to do something. I had a hydraulic on my last boat and it was great. The wheel pilot is not nearly as nice to use, but a whole lot cheaper. Each time you activate a wheel pilot you have to move the lever to lock it on and then push the set button. Two things in two different places. Reverse to deactivate. The hydraulic you just push the control button to activate/deactivate. Doesn’t seem like much, but the difference for me is having to think about it for the wheel pilot and just doing it at any time on the hydraulic. And then there are the large number of times that when things get hectic, I deactivate the control box but forget to unlock the lever and have to take a second to figure out why the wheel is locked. Or activate the control box and forget to lock the wheel pilot. Unfortunately, no one seemed to think they could fit a hydraulic in the space available on my current boat. Dave On Mar 2, 2015, at 10:15 PM, Bradley Lumgair via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:
> Well I was over to see the boat today, brought the Autohelm 4000 control box > home with me. Appears like its an original so there will be no chance of > communication going on between it and the new stuff. :(( no trace of anything > other than "Autohelm4000" and made in England so it's got to be as old as > dirt! > > Sent, miraculously through cyberspace, > from my iPad! > _______________________________________________ > > Email address: > CnC-List@cnc-list.com > To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the bottom > of page at: > http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com > Aries 1990 C&C 34+ New London, CT
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