With the season just starting and the plans for sailing far and wide being discussed in the pub, my thoughts are all about tiller tamers and their ilk. I've never been entirely happy with them, the best one I ever had was just a bit of string and a bit of shock cord.
But with some fairly long passages (for me!) being a distinct possibility, I thought to put it out there to ask on thoughts about an auto pilot for my Baycruiser 23? Does any other Baycruiser owner own and use one?
Initial internet searches show the Simrad TP10 to be the smallest and maybe most suitable for this relatively small boat. Power is the biggest obstacle (and cost - not cheap at all), but this apparently only draws 0.5A in auto mode, a lot less on standby. I have twin 20W solar panels powering two 50 APH batteries. I don't have a charging coil on my Merc 6hp outboard, so maybe I need to think about having one fitted - are they worth it, does anyone know? Is the output going to make any difference to assist in charging.
My Standard Horizon chart plotter can output to a tiller pilot, so that is a consideration but far from being a requirement. The other power consuming bits of kit would just be the wind, vhf/dsc/ais, stereo, bluetooth mobile phone remote..Maybe lights depending on time of day/night, all fairly low power stuff. I can leave the dishwasher off until I can get some shore power...
I'm all in a quandry! Are they worth it? Any thoughts/opinions welcome..
Andy
Baycruiser 23 'Equinox'