Larry wrote:
Right there in your backyard, B&G has the answer....Lionheart has a
"Network Pilot" installed in its line of B&G "Network" sailing instruments
that were already on the boat. It's an electro-hydraulic ram right on the
rudder post with a home-made little metal bracket. Even if the cables
break, she'll be easily steerable with the hand remote control. It's like
a ghost at the helm because unless you're laying in the aft cabin right on
top of the pump/ram unit....you can't hear it run. Coordinated turns after
it has "learned" the boat's parameters from the Raymarine gyro/compass
rate-of-turn data, is a real pleasure to witness....

So much better than Autohelm 4000+ on captain's last boat, an Endeavour 35
sloop....

Absolutely, but so would any other "real" autopilot installed on the
rudder post. Including the Raymarine 6000/7000.

In my opinion the "on wheel" stuff is all slow, feeble, engineered down
to a low price. True for all manufacturers that I have seen, whether
Raymarine or any other.


Thank you, England....(c;


So that's England versus England ;-)

Contrary to what you seem to believe, most Raymarine stuff is designed
in the UK. According to their website they only engineer the fishfinders
in the US. AFAIK Raytheon had radars, they bought Autohelm to complement
it. Later they renamed their consumer branch Raymarine, then there was a
management buy-out. The current Raymarine is more Autohelm than
Raytheon, I guess. I'll gladly cede to someone with better information
though.

--
Kees