I asked a friend a similar question a few years ago and his answer was 1.
Autopilot 2. Refrigeration 3. Solar panels
I now have all 3 and recommend his list and priority ranking.
I have had the ST4000, ST4000+ and X-5 autopilots (not on the same boat).
Things to watch for The ST4000 (black) can be hard to find parts for and when
you find them, they may be a bit pricey. It keeps a good course, but little or
no ability to adjust for sea state. You will have to adjust a few times if you
are steering over a long distance but not a problem
ST4000+ (grey) still supported parts wise by Flir. Can suffer from a design
flaw where the low battery alert sounds continually unnecessarily. Flir will
fix the problem for $275. Adjustment for sea state possible, but a little
complicated X-5 I bought this new. Worked flawlessly. Easy adjustment for
sea state.
All autohelm/raymarine/flir wheel pilots have a design flaw. There are posts
in the ring extrusion that tend to break. There is a relatively simple, DIY fix
(search on Youtube).
Hope this helps
Cheers Doug,Celtic Knot 85 33-2 c/b
On Monday, December 19, 2016 6:07 PM, Andrew Means via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:
#yiv9365689463 body{font-family:Helvetica, Arial;font-size:13px;}I feel like I
see a reasonable amount of solar panels on the cruising boats at Shilshole but
certainly less than you would in lower latitudes. The Safari mainly does day
sailing with some moderate-length cruising in the San Juans, Gulf Islands and
off the Vancouver coast. Long 10 hour days of motoring in non-existent Puget
Sound wind makes me yearn for an autopilot...
--
Andrew Means
S.V. Safari - 1977 C&C 34 Mk ISeattle, WA
On December 19, 2016 at 2:28:01 PM, Chuck Gilchrest via CnC-List
(cnc-list@cnc-list.com) wrote:
I'd be buying solar panels and associatedcontroller/regulators. But perhaps in
Seattle solar panelsare more wishful thinking than practical..Chuck Gilchrest
S/V Half Magic1983 Landfall 35Padanaram, MA
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 19, 2016, at 4:27 PM, Andrew Means via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com>wrote:
Hey all -
I have recently found myself with $750 worth of gift cards to spendat Fisheries
Supply. I’m debating about what to buy and thought youguys might be able to
help me.
Big-ticket items I’dlike for my 1977 C&C 34:
Some kind of autopilot system - It looks like from thewebsite Fisheries
autopilot systems are not really aimed atsailboats, but I wonder if they’d be
able to order something.Defender’s got the RaymarineEvolution EV-100 Wheel
Autopilot Pack at $1249, which isobviously a chunk more than I’ve got but it
could be an option. Iam thinking however that I’d probably prefer to buy a
simplerautopilot (something that basically just holds a course) secondhand from
somebody who is looking to upgrade and save a lot ofmoney that way. Anybody
have experience with the Raymarine unit orused units I should be on the lookout
for?
Self-Tailing Winches for the cabin top - right now we’ve gottwo mismatched
non-self-tailing winches on our cabin top and it’dbe pretty nice to have the
matched and self tailing winches there.Two of these wouldrun past my budget but
it would be worth it. They’re single speedthough, so operations like reefing
might be challenging. I couldjust get one dual-speed self-tailing winch this
season and look toupgrade the second next season... Again, I’m not opposed to
lookingout for used self-tailing winches at the next swap meet.
Other things the boat could use:
+ New Spinnaker Halyard (definitely needed for next season)+ New topping lift,
foreguy lines (currently old but not bad)+ More automatic PFDs (we’ve got
plenty of life vests but if wehave auto PFDs we’ll have better luck getting
people to wearthem)
What do you guys think? If you had $750 to spend on boat gear whatwould you
spend it on?
Andrew
--
Andrew Means
S.V. Safari - 1977 C&C 34 Mk ISeattle,WA
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This list is supported by the generous donations of our members. If you wish to
make a contribution to offset our costs, please go to:
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All Contributions are greatly appreciated!
_______________________________________________
This list is supported by the generous donations of our members. If you wish to
make a contribution to offset our costs, please go to:
https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
All Contributions are greatly appreciated!
_______________________________________________
This list is supported by the generous donations of our members. If you wish to
make a contribution to offset our costs, please go to:
https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
All Contributions are greatly appreciated!
