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Pelagic Autopilots, anyone had any experience with them


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Yep, agreed, but the low quality mechanical stuff is reflected in the electronics too.

The primary pilots are significantly better from both manufacturers, and can be connected to an external hydraulic ram. Ugly, but functional.

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IT, i’m Thinking about a SD10 drive for my 35ft Elliot, displacement around 4T, needs to be cockpit mounted and will get very wet. Are these units worth a look? Cable drive and rudder feedback integrated only the push rod in the elements.

 

Will get a matching NAC core pack to replace my ray marine unit. All the rest of my gear is b and g Vulcan/triton.

 

Don’t trust my Raymarine Tiller drive.

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There seems to be a big gap between the off the shelf plug and pray TPs to the all stainless machined stuff. And price too! The market place needs a new player, they would clean the lot up! I tried using the TP32 under wind N2K and worked OK but very sluggish compared to the surgical rubber setup I have made running off the boom which works on most points, no good downwind, its all hands on. Under power no problem but as you said IT and KM, the loads on the tiller undersail I think exceed its limits. Definitly need some quick response hydrolic setup that has GPS and fluxgate.

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Fluxgate compasses are obsolete. Solid state ones are the current versions, like the navico precision 9. A huge improvement, virtually immune to boat movement, and usually with roll, pitch and yaw output or compensation.

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Fluxgate compasses are obsolete. Solid state ones are the current versions, like the navico precision 9. A huge improvement, virtually immune to boat movement, and usually with roll, pitch and yaw output or compensation.

So, why are both of the "big" off the shelf makers still doing fluxgate in their TPs? Oh, thats right, "we make more money" selling them as a seatalk (talks to nothing else) or N2K option! So how many more dollars to buy and plug one of those in!?

Yep, found it....$645 US.

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I had multiple failures with different Raymarine APs over the years ranging from those awful plastic circular wheel systems through to numerous circuit board failures on the head unit / display. At one point, after going through 3 head units in as many years (all replaced under warranty) the national supplier sent (at their expense) a marine sparky to my boat to inspect the setup - and could find nothing wrong. Eventually I reluctantly upgraded from the ST system to Raymarine's latest Evo system (including type 1 linear drive) mostly because I had other Raymarine kit onboard. I suspect there are a bunch of other boats around the world hanging on to their Raymarine APs due to the inertia of being interfaced to other Raymarine instruments, plotters, VHF etc.

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Rate compasses have been replaced as well. They were just fluxgate ones with rate sensors added anyway. No decent reseller of raymarine or navico will sell you a fluxgate or a rate compass with a new ap now unless you specifically request it.

Navicos under deck pilots, NAC range, H5000 range and wtp3 units are very reliable. Have a look what the vendee globe boasts use...

There is, imo, a void in the marketplace for a really good tiller pilot though.

The under deck pilots can, will, and do work on a tiller driven boat(like the vendee globe boats), but they are custom jobs, and expensive.

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Gh2183 and precision 9 are very similar, I can likely get a product comparison if you'd really like one.

A quartering sea is the most difficult steering angle. It's a test for an AP or a helmsman. Use minimum rudder gain and counter rudder that you can get away with for best steering.

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