In Dave writes:

On Fri, 22 Jul 2005 19:47:44 -0400, Jonathan said:

My personal
feeling is the boat handles better and sails better with the vane,
because everything is relating to the wind. A big puff, the boat starts
to head up, the lines tighten, the vane straightens the boat out, the
electric auto pilot never quite as "in sync" to me.

Of course the autopilot can also be controlled by a vane and thus made to
steer relative to the wind rather than a compass heading. Autohelm has such
an option, though I haven't tried it.

This is the theory and what the sellers tell you. The feedback is too
slow and there are very few autopilots where the steering is related to
the boat speed, as it is done in a servo-pendulum windvane. It is much
more expensive or it is consuming more curent to make a autopilot with
an motor that relates to the speed of the boat.

- Lauri Tarkkonen