On Wed, 17 May 2006 23:00:04 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

That's a pretty silly disagreement since you haven't sailed my boat.
I wasn't talking about the fuzzy concept of "fast enough", my boat
does that. I was talking about the more quantifiable ability to
continue steering itself with the helm locked long enough to go down
below and get more clothes, check a chart without getting spray on it,
grab something to eat, or walk up to the bow to tend to something.

I've never seen a sailboat that will do that without some sort of
positive feedback system, i.e., autopilot or windvane.

All of my sailboats had tiller pilots from the mid 70s onward. We
regarded them as essential for shorthanded sailing or extended
cruising. It's like always having an extra person aboard who does not
sleep, eat, drink your beer or complain. What is that worth? :-)

When we did the first shakedown cruise on our trawler 2 years ago the
autopilot was not working. It went to the top of our "must fix" list
after 2 days.