To Roger L
 

Roger Long wrote:
I have nothing good to say about Raymarine. I chose their ST1000 Tiller
Pilot on the recommendation of Cape Horn, the name was familiar, and
there was one right on the shelf at Hamilton Marine. I bought the unit
in January because there was a short time "special offer" that included
a remote key pad (which I have found very useful, almost a must have) at
no additional cost.

There are a three common problems with Raymarine (ex Autohelm) pilots:

They were designed in Britain originally, probably by an apprentice
engineer who was fired by Lucas Electrics (aka Prince of Darkness).
Their waterproofing is really bad. Water gets into all of them except
the 4000 tiller pilot which is robust. I know of people who created
their own little vinyl or sunbrella covers for them. The rod seals
are the weak point.

They are sensitive to low voltages due to corrosion at the plug
connection and will trip off or just beep and refuse to work. Check
the back of the plug if they do that.

The plastic gears inside aren't that sturdy and sometimes fail. The
4000 has an upgrade (basically the GT model) that uses bronze gears
and it is much better.

Evan Gatehouse

To Roger L
 

On 2007-10-18 07:04:26 -0400, "Roger Long" said:

Mine is inside a locker so it stays pretty dry and out of the sun. I
swapped the units yesterday and can hear something rattling around
inside which sounds a lot like a gear tooth or a ball bearing.

Raymarine has a website where you can sign up for an "Account" to get
technical support but they haven't responded to my inquiry about this
yet.

Roger,

Please include some of what you're responding to so we can figure out
the context.

I believe you were talking about autopilots, but there are some
"interesting" alternative topics you could have been discussing.

Without assuming anything, re-read what I included above -- your entire post.

This is from my inner editor that I can't turn off, only sometimes shut up.

-----

And I WELCOME others telling me that what they think I intended to say
wasn't what they read. When my posts diverge from my usual persona, I
probably did **** up.

Even editors need editors, perhaps more so.

--
Jere Lull
Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI

To Roger L
 

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
Mine is inside a locker so it stays pretty dry and out of the sun. I
swapped the units yesterday and can hear something rattling around inside
which sounds a lot like a gear tooth or a ball bearing.

Raymarine has a website where you can sign up for an "Account" to get
technical support but they haven't responded to my inquiry about this yet.

--
Roger Long


Raymarine has a website where you can sign up for an "Account" to get
technical support but they haven't responded to my inquiry about this yet.

I have dealt with the website technical support quite a few times. They can
be slow to respond but do get back to you. Quality of response varies
depending on who replies. With patience you can get good information.

To Roger L
 

I have not had good luck with steering on very broad reaches and zero
running. I'm quite sure this is a function of the characteristics of my
boat however and not the unit itself. I had to compromise the "tiller"
length and leverage a bit to get the line blocks in a feasible location
and the unit sometimes seems under powered. This can be rectified by
fitting a longer servo oar which is a project for this winter.


Are you sure this isn't a function of having less wind to move the
vane, especially when running?
Or are you saying you mounted the unit higher than normal so you have
less oar in the water?
Might this not be part of the problem with your autopilot hitting the
stops? More oar, less autopilot?
I'm picking your brain because I'm considering a Cape Horn.
Gordon

To Roger L
 

Roger Long wrote:
"Gordon" wrote

Are you sure this isn't a function of having less wind to move the
vane, especially when running?

Partly but that's an issue with all windvanes. The Cape Horn video
shows boats running quite well but they had spinnakers set. My boat is
rather quick on the helm and takes a lot of attention downwind so I'm
not surprised at poor wind vane performance. The wind vane pays better
attention than most human helmsmen but can't anticipate.

My suggestion: put 1 reef in the main when sailing downwind much
sooner than you would with a human helmsman. Drop the main entirely
when it's windy. This was the suggestion of 2 British long term
offshore sailors (12 years of offshore cruising experience when I
spoke to them about this; now going on 22).

I followed their advice and our windvane's performance improved a lot.
Boat speed didn't suffer as much as I would have thought. Give it a
shot.

Evan Gatehouse