[Public-List] Tiller Pilots on A

[Kirk Little via Public-List]

I installed a Raymarine S1 tiller pilot on Salsa in 2008 and it is still working well.  Most sailing and offshore work is delegated to the windvane but most motoring, and shorter or light wind trips have been with the tiller pilot, she must have around 5000nm on her and still working well.  I have noticed that she struggles in moderate wind or with an unbalanced sail plan more than before as the motor and gears are aging.  I've got my eye on the S2 or S1GT? motor/arm.  The one with the slightly larger motor.  Its worth mentioning that initially, it used a lot of power when off shore, like many autopilots on sailboats it tried to correct for roll on each wave which is a wasted effort.  There is a dealer setting (maybe for the yawl sensor?) you can change between 1-3 and the manual warns not to put this setting to 0.   Once I finally put this setting to 0 I found the thing steered better and used 1/2 the power.  Sadly the newer raymarine computers/controllers are less programmable and on my last delivery the newest Raymarine controller overworked the new autopilot motor to failure even though we babied it the entire 5000 miles.  I still love my old S1.  They key to making these things last is not asking them to work with big loads.      
-Kirk
 		 	   		  
 1451217082.0