On 2007-10-16 14:44:13 -0400, "Roger Long" said:

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.

Just for curiosity: open the unit and inspect the piece of plastic
keeping the thrust bearing in place.

Our 2000 broke after a season or so. I fixed it by drilling and tapping
into some plate in there. The system's worked pretty well for 5 or so
seasons since.

The symptom was that turns to port (pulling) were fine, but starboard
(push) hung up increasingly.

From the reviews I heard and read when I decided on the 2000 (mostly
for the remote and GPS connection) I'm not sure the other company's
tiller pilots are much better, BTW.

The old 800 was sufficient for Xan, BTW, so the 1000 definitely should
suffice for Strider.

I've never had the AP trip out of autopilot mode *except* when the
bearing was sloppy. That was preceded by many beeps of warning, though.

--
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/