[Public-List] Tiller Pilots on A

Sun Dec 27 07:24:40 PST 2015

Hello again friends...

I've remembered a story from that yacht delivery I mentioned.  I'll keep it
short.

We were bringing a Dufour 31 from Martinique to Toronto via Bermuda and New
York.  At point in the passage up to Bermuda from St Maartin we were
becalmed and decided to motor to run up our batteries while putting some
miles behind us.  I was on watch at night alone, chugging along over the
oily swells.

I was admiring the stars when I noticed the boat start turning gently to
port.  The Autohelm hadn't ever gone off course before so I was curious.  I
watched her swing to see how far we went... We made a complete circle then
resumed our northerly heading.  It never did that again.

Years later when after I was in the Navy I was talking with one of our RCN
submariners.  He laughed and told me we were likely being checked out by a
submarine.  Our service, and probably the USN too, keeps databanks of the
sound signatures of all kinds of vessels as part of defence and
anti-smuggling work.  My colleague told me that the flux gate compass in the
Autohelm was reacting to a couple thousand tons of steel 30' or so below us
gliding by...  

I'll never know what it really was, but the Autohelm never did that again.

Gord #426 Surprise

On 2015-12-27, 9:40 AM, "Gordon Laco via Public-List"
<public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:

> Good morning Harry,
> 
> A C&C 27 would require more steering than an Alberg 30...  The former is
> beamier with a fin keel and spade rudder design configuration.   This sort of
> boat has less wetted surface in the water and more agile helm response at the
> cost of poorer course holding ability.
> 
> The Alberg 30 is narrow hulled, with a full keel and attached rudder; a
> combination which results in more stable steering characteristics.
> 
> The C&C 27, while lighter in displacement, will require more energetic
> steering more often...
> 
> The boat I described in my earlier response was similar, and the device we
> used was an Autohelm 2000.
> 
> Gord #426 Surprise
> 
> PS the Toronto Int'l Boat Show is looming... I'll be in my Epifanes Yacht
> Coatings/ Voyager Self Steering  booth again and would be glad to meet any of
> you who might come by.
> 
> 
> On 2015-12-27, at 8:07 AM, Harry Black via Public-List
> <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
>> Thank you for that information Kirk. It makes me really puzzled why the S1 I
>> got simply started to drift off course  almost every time I used it. I gave
>> it to an electronics person but he said it was not able to be fixed. Told me
>> it was too small for my C and C 27 which is much lighter than the A 30.
>> 
>> Harry Black
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>>> On Dec 27, 2015, at 6:51 AM, Kirk Little via Public-List
>>> <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 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 progra
>  m
>> ma
>>> ble 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
>>> 
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