I have the great grandaddy of all the wheel pilots, the AutoHelm 4000. It works great motoring in calm conditions or going upwind in about anything. Downwind with any swell it gets way behind the boat. Running under chute with the autopilot is light air only.
I have a winter project to build a new course computer out of a Raspberry Pi for it, we’ll see how much better that works. Speaking of…….ignore the displacement ratings for autopilots. The old AH4000 could steer a freighter, steel hull issues excepted, big ships have power steering and the physical effort is low. What you REALLY need to think about is load on the helm. If the boat is hard for YOU to steer, a wheel pilot will have one hell of a time. Pretty much any of our C&Cs will overwhelm a wheel pilot if driven hard enough and even the biggest ones will do fine on a light air motor. Joe Della Barba Coquina C&C 35 MK I Kent Island MD USA
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