My Raymarine wheel pilot has given up the ghost and I am considering a below deck hydraulic replacement. The cost is reasonable since most of my Raymarine stuff will be used by the hydraulic unit.
My concern is how responsive (or not!) the wheel will be when the pilot is disengaged. With the wheel pilot, there was little difference. I have steered a boat with hydraulic steering once (a Whitby 42) whose entire steering (auto or not) was hydraulic. The response of that system was so bad I swore I would never have anything to do with another hydraulic unit. Of course, when not engaged I understand that the pilot would not be steering the boat--OTOH, it is still connected in some manner. Since I mostly PHRF race the boat, I need to have the wheel/rudder move without additional resistance from the auto-pilot. Is this something I should be concerned about or is the wheel 'free' when the auto-pilot is not engaged? Thanks, Charlie Nelson 1995 C&C 36 XL/kcb Water Phantom cenel...@aol.com
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