Larry,
I'm not at all familiar with your boat, but would there be any way to
rig a tiller pilot to work? These are devices designed to by used by
sailboats w/ a tiller, but are often also used with some wind vanes
(like the monitor). They steer the boat to a compass heading, but most
can also be interfaced to accept NEMA and steer to a waypoint. Cost new
starts about $300

L. M. Rappaport wrote:

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



--
Dan Best - (707) 431-1662, Healdsburg, CA 95448
B-2/75 1977-1979
Tayana 37 #192, "Tricia Jean" http://rangerbest.home.comcast.net/TriciaJean.JPG