wrote in message
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"Wilbur Hubbard" wrote in message
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"Roger Long" wrote in message
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I brought the boat down from the yard today. The rig wasn't set up so
it was fifteen miles as a power boat. As soon as I got out of the
river, I set up the newly installed ST1000 driving the Cape Horn
windvane.

Wow. I never had so much fun not doing something I used to think of
as fun. I know most of you take this for granted but I've always
been a "keep it simple", minimalist sailor. There's something about
a boat that steers itself that makes you feel like an adult.

I spent a good part of the leg down the bay sorting out lines and
making the boat a bit more presentable after the hasty mast stepping
and departure. The remote was close at hand and what luxury to just
reach down and push the buttons when a floating log or pot buoy came
up.

It was a cold, raw day (an inch of snow in the northern part of the
state) and would have been a long cold trick at the wheel single
handed. Another nice thing I've discovered about autopilots is that
being able to move around and do things makes you feel a lot warmer.

I don't know how I ever got along without this thing. I may never
steer again. What's next? Radar? (Now that I can leave the wheel, I
could even go and look at it.)

--

Roger Long


If you had a real sailboat like my Allied Seawind 32 with her
traditional full keel and ketch rig, you wouldn't need to use some
cheapo electronic autopilot. Sea Isle can hold her course all day
long just with the proper sail trim using the jigger as a steering
sail.

There is no joy in having to use electricity to keep a recalcitrant
and poorly designed yacht on her course.

Wilbur Hubbard
Correct, we know the Allied Seawind 32 well.
As you have stated it will, under normal condition, hold its course.
That may account for one reason why circumnavigators were amenable to
use the Allied Seawind 32.
However, the Bay of Fundy, offers a varietals of challenges. The
Point Lepreau rip tides, the Grand Manan channel,
Tiverton Passage, Schooner Passage. Letite and Little passages are
very challenging in Black fog. The legend has it that Mohawk ledge
has had its share of boats. The fog is challenging but compounded
with tides, eddies and currents you have all it takes to prove your
skill and your manual or auto pilot. No one navigating in these areas
will let his or her boat steered itseft alone. An auto pilot can be
used as long as you have a constant vigil and adjust the heading a
degree at a time or better still do the steering manually with the
assistance of plotter,dept sounder and radar. Having a fin keel allows
for quicker reaction time to avoid ledges and rocks.

The Bay of Fundy is, indeed, one of the more challenging places in the
whole world to sail. I've never been there but I understand the highest
tides in the world occur there. Thirty to forty feet? Now, that's scary.

Wilbur Hubbard