• Registered: 2005-03-11
  • Posts: 9

Topic: autopilot

I have a Cape Horn windvane and an old Navico 5000 which we call Otto. It steered hundreds of miles offshore when I hit the frustrating calms, and it put up with swells and rolling and what not. It should only be used when motoring in calms, or in very docile sailing conditions, although it will drain your batteries if you don't have additional power supply such as solar panels, wind generator, etc.
The Ottopilot smile should be about 90 degrees from the tiller, attached to a wooden block or something similar on the aft deck. You put a pin on your tiller where you stick the arm of the pilot, et voila, you have your tiller slave. You usually have a button for a fixed course, then 2 others for adjusting the course one degree at a time, port and starboard.
This may be way too basic information for you, but there's nothing to it really, except that you need to connect the wires properly and have that right angle to the tiller.
Maybe the other guys can give you a more sophisticated answer here, for me it was a pretty straight forward deal.

  • From: Vancouver, B.C. Canada
  • Registered: 2005-05-06
  • Posts: 304

Re: autopilot

Tommy, I think you saw mine when you were in Vancouver...I can send you pics if you'd like.  Did you get your windvane on yet?

“You get a boat for only one reason, because you want one.  If you’re worried about being practical, forget boats.”
  • Registered: 2005-07-12
  • Posts: 8

Re: autopilot

Anyone have any experience?  I have a windvane I am still working on
and bought an el cheapo autopilot to use in the interim.  I know absolutely nothing about using one. So, anyone who has used one is someone I would like to hear from.

  • From: Alabama Gulf Coast
  • Registered: 2006-06-30
  • Posts: 60

Re: autopilot

I met the installer of the "Varuna" wind vane at the Annapolis boat show and was considering paying $2000+ and having him stay in my guest room for a week while he installed this monstrosity that would project six feet or more off of my stern. ( It was guaranteed for once around the world.)
A friend counseled me that, since I had no immediate plans to traverse the world, that two cheap tiller pilots might serve me better.
I bought two Autohelm 1000 tillerpilots from West Marine for less than $500 each and they work fine. My Contessa has two batteries and a whole 8 hours steering by autopilot will drain one battery most all the way down-saving the other one to start the diesel.
Autohelm 1000's drown out if drenched so I rigged a clear plastic cover for it with velcro if I need it to steer in driving rain or am being pooped by waves astern. I can see my buttons to push and read the compass on it through the clear plastic.
Last year I drowned out both autopilots and sent them to the factory and they came back fine. This spring, my buddy knocked one overboard, rendering it disfunctional after I hauled it up by the wire. I put it in my oven with just the 40 watt oven light burning for most of a week and it has worked great ever since.

The cutworms are in the hollyhocks, again!

tubatooter1940's Website

  • From: Ottawa, On
  • Registered: 2005-03-10
  • Posts: 353

Re: autopilot

Most electronic gadgets will work fine when you dry them out - the important thing being that you don't put power to anything while still wet.  There was an article in SAIL a few years back about this - basically if you've got something thats dead, you might as well take it apart, wash the boards with dish soap and water and a fine nail bruch, dry it out and then try it again.

stefan_d's Website