We have a little 18.5' Bomardier Utopia. It is a jet boat powered by
a 200 hp Merc. One of the characteristics of jet boats is that their
slow speed handling is lousy. You really can't take your hands off
the wheel.

I was thinking of installing some kind of hydraulic or electric
autopilot, but have virtually no experience with them. The boat does
have a Garmin 182 FF/GPS, so I presume there's a NEMA stream
available.

Is this possible? Does it make sense for a small boat? Has anybody
done it? Recommendations? I'm not concerned about navigation, simply
to be able to take my hands off the wheel and have the craft continue
in a straight line...

(Note: I have substantial experience with large and small power and
sail, but all of it is over 30 years old)

Thanks,
--

Larry
Email to rapp at lmr dot com