Ivan, apologies for the off-topic discussions-but it's off-season and it's all sailing, so it's interesting to me.
To address your question, however: my C27 came equipped with an AutoHelm ST1000-older unit but the PO told me that he absolutely swore by it, and it was plenty strong for anything he faced in Lake Erie. He said it drove the boat better than he ever could. When I was re-wiring the boat after a complete teardown, I realized he (or the PPO-more likely, because the PO was an engineer) had hooked up the tiller with (gasp) telephone cord-solid 24AWG telephone cord-which was corroded but somehow still providing enough juice to run his AutoHelm. That tells me that the tiller pilots are forgiving, and also, because they have a really long lever arm on which to operate, don't need much in the way of current. Please do NOT wire yours with just phone cord. But they're pretty darn straightforward and reasonably priced to boot. I think the ST2000 is larger than you'd need, but would still work fine. I have read of a number of people using a tiller pilot to drive their wind vane when they have a wheel system. It seems they do this because the wind vane gives them a little more leverage and the tiller pilots are cheap and simple compared to setting up an autopilot capable of driving the wheel and its direct linkage (worm gear especially, because of its friction). So you could use your tiller pilot to drive a wind vane, but I'm not sure how you'd use a wind vane to drive (or control) the tiller pilot the way you could use wind info to drive a more sophisticated autopilot. Of course, I'm picturing the unit that came on my boat, which had a compass dial and sensing unit mounted atop it and just followed a bearing. I sold it to another boat owner and have installed a hydraulic unit controlled by an ST7000 in my C27. But there are plenty of others out there, especially on eBay. Dave Shaddock From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of ivan Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 2:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: catalina27-talk: Tiller pilot I see a lot of talk about these Wylies on here and it makes for a fascinating read, but I'm wondering if I'm on the wrong list. I assume this still a topic we can discuss c27's. So I'll throw this out there one more time... I am researching tiller pilots and I wanted to get some feed back from anyone that is using a tiller pilot. What unit are you using? How do you like the performance? How's the power consumption? How's the reliability? How's effective is it going downwind? Do you use a wind vane that is connected to the unit? C'mon share the good stuff!! Got a used one you want to get rid of? So far I'm liking the simrad TP22 and the Raymarine autohelm ST2000. Are these units overkill for C27? -Ivan Chesapeake City, MD (Soon to be Inner Harbor in May!!) tim ford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I see Rage winning the Transpac in 93, first in class, second in fleet. But I could be wrong. Odd years TP, even years the PC, right? tf Ralph E. Ahseln wrote: > Sorry, > I should point out that "Rage" won the PACIFIC CUP not the TRANSPAC.. > > And ...... It's for sale.... LOL > > > Ralph Ahseln > > > _____ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http:/mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8H DtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ%20> it now.
