Raymond, thanks, that’s helpful. What sort of trim tab do you have and how
did it interface with the autopilot?
Scott
S/V Itchen
----- Original Message -----
From: “raymondwalton” <raymondwalton@comcast.net >
To: <bcc@yahoogroups.com >
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: [bcc] auto tiller pilots
Hi Scott, Pat,
When we had Dilkara in the Carribbean for 8 years we used an Autohelm 2000
under very heavy conditions and it always worked perfectly. We had to
replace the tiller bracket with a heavy duty bronze bracket bolted to the
tiller on both ends since the one supplied distorted badly in heavy seas.
The real secret to the success of the autopilot was the trim tab we had on
the tiller. When it was set properly there was very little strain on the
autopilot. The wind vane didn’t work that well but the trim tab worked
beautifully. In sailing from New England to South America and back the
Autohelm never failed, no matter what the conditions. In eight years we had
only one repair which Autohelm did for free. We met one boat that had the
autopilot hooked up directly to the trim tab and their owners were very
pleased with the result. We considered doing that but never found the time
or need to do so.
Ray