"Michal" wrote in message
...
Dear All,

I'm involved in building a 40 ft cat called Format1200, see:

http://www.format-system.de/designs.html

We now have to choose the steering system. There will be a wheel in the
cocpit ,an autopilot is also required, (ontop on GPS, radar etc).

There are obviously two rudders. The boat will be used for blue water
cruising.

Do you have a suggestion for a combined hydraulic/autopilot system which
would work well on this boat?

Any pro/contra vs. mechanical steering other than the "feedback" feel?

Any big cat that I have steered has almost no "feel". So hydraulic works as
well as any other type and does make fitting an autopilot simpler and
cheaper. It's first cost is likely to be higher.

If you go hydraulic, then try to fit a steering cylinder to just one rudder
stock and put a tie bar to connect to the other rudder stock tiller - it is
much simpler than dual cylinders which get out of alignment over time and
have to have the rudders re-aligned.

The design or designer should have some figures for expected rudder torque
so that you can choose the correct size system.

Our catamaran (Woods 40' Meander) has a rope drum attached to the steering
wheel. Steering ropes lead under the bridgedeck to tillers on top of the
tilt up rudders. Very simple, easy to fix system, but I still don't know
how I'm going to fit an autopilot to it (other than the cockpit wheel type
which I don't trust for long passages).


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Evan Gatehouse

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