On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:44:13 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I love the Cape Horn vane gear. It's the best thing I've put on the boat.

Installation of this unit is more complex than the others on the market and
will raise the cost a bit if you do it yourself and significantly increase
it if you have a yard do it. However, the result is a very clean
installation that is an integral part of the boat.

If you are not to comfortable with boat projects or think you might change
boats and want to take the vane gear with you, the Cape Horn probably isn't
for you. If you want a very attractive, clean, and rugged installation, it's
the only way to go. I open the hatch to my stern locker and there are two
cam cleats right inside the edge. Cleat the ropes and the gear is connected.
Flip them off, and it is disconnected. There are no lines and absolutely no
part of the gear inside the cockpit coaming; no steering lines running to
the wheel.

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.

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.

The unit worked for a couple weeks of daysails and then failed on the second
day of a long cruise. I really needed the autopilot so I had to buy another
one. Hamilton offered to stand behind it after a lot of emailing and phone
calls to get high enough up the chain not to get the run around. I elected
to keep it however for a spare. Raymarine behaved such that I will only buy
their products in the future if there is no alternative.

The replacement unit worked well all season but started tripping out of
autopilot mode with increasing frequency about two weeks ago. It is now
unusable. Email inquiry to them so far unanswered. I'm glad I kept the
repaired first one. I think it's going to be one of those things you need
two of, one to be in the shop and one to use.

When Raymarine repaired the first unit, they said that the problem must be
that my boat is too large for it, which is true on the face of it. Since it
is only tweaking the vane gear linkage, however, it is doing less work than
it might steering an 8 foof dinghy in light wind.

Web site on installation he

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Windvane.htm

Consider using both.. put the motor actuator part of one on the
windvane and the control electronics inside, control with the remote.
The shaft drags water into the case and you can get condensation on to
the pcb.