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JimB
 
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Default Rate Stabilizers for Autopilots


Go to page 9 of the Gyro installation and read where it says it

has to
be within 10 degrees of vertical to work right.

Name 3 sailboats you know of that remain within 10 degrees of

vertical
so it will work right. I can't find any here, either,

especially
ours. I'm not sure what 30 degrees of heel does for it. Does

it
render it useless?


No. Close hauled (when sailing vessels heel most) the autopilot
doesn't have to work hard, and performance isn't an issue. Yaw
rates are small, and the pitch inputs (producing spurious yaw
inputs) are small.

Downwind is the problem area. Heel angle is random. Measurements
of yaw rate will be disturbed from time to time when there's a
temporary roll angle on, which may make the autopilot overactive.
But the inputs as you roll from side to side will cancel out.
Just like the typical helmsman's effort when sailing downwind in
a death roll!

The ideal system has an earth stabilised sensor! Who makes those?
What price?

JimB (going off line for two weeks; to sell the boat?)
Yacht RAPAZ, sadly for sale,
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jim.bae...cification.htm