Autopilot

[BillR]

Considering new Autopilot.  Has anyone experience with Simrad WP!0 or Ray Marine 4000 MK II?

Thanks in advance.

Bill Russell

[hdevera]

Raymarine works fine ony my MKII.  It is connected to my GPS and will track a course with multiple waypoints... but I have not found this particular feature very useful other than when motoring.  4000 autopilot is fine for me in SF Bay area.  Good luck with your decision.

[Eliosso]

Installing my new Navico xp30 with remote next week. Had a Navico tiller pilot for 10 years and was very happy so staying with same now Simrad. I like the feature of having all in one
Paul

[Stu Jackson]

Bill
One of th neatest features of this message board is its FIND search engine.

If you hit the Find tab, and type in your subject, you'll find all sorts of information.

I typed in "autopilot" and got this:

http://c34.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=search&s=329609511&reqWords=autopilot

Happy reading.

Stu

PS  Whenever one thinks of asking a question that starts with: "Has anybody...", please take a moment to use the Find feature, which works extremely quickly and pretty thoroughly.  Thanks.

[BillR]

Thanks Stu.  I guess I was asking "what do you think of..." instead of "how to..."  In the future I will use the search first.

[Stu Jackson]

Bill

No problem, sorry if I sounded short.  If I did, I apologize.

There is a tremendous amount of material on the ST 4000.  Most issues are based on the location of the fluxgate compass.  If I remember correctly, we also posted some cross references to LOOOOOONG discussions on the catalinaowners.com website about this very same subject, within the text of our earlier discussions on this message board's multiple threads.

Seems a LOT of people have had issues with the ST 4000, but also seems they were resolved successfully.

You may also want to try a Forum Archives search over at co.com for even more information, if you don't find the aforementioned cross references.  Search for ST4000 and Simrad.  Many of the search results will pick up on EXACTLY your question.  Lots of people have had to make this choice.  Just this week someone brought up the Simrad WP30, just for a little extra excitement to the chase!!! :)

All the best,

Stu

[BillR]

No problem Stu.  Your advice, and link, was very helpful.  It appears that there are as many views as there are boat owners.  My boat was the 89 Annapolis Boat Show boat and still has the Datamarine instruments installed for that show.  (I'm sorry too.)

I'm replacing a Navico unit which was installed for a crossing of the Gulf of Mexico in 1992 and never performed as desired.  Navico did not have good customer service (at least for me).  I hope that Simrad is better at it than Navico.

It would appear that installing the Raymarine ST4000 requires a lot more work than installing the Simrad but is the unit of choice by Catalina and their local dealer in Houston.

I plan on installing the ST4000 and placing the control unit in a pod on the pedestal as I have no desire to cut another hole in the cockpit.

Thanks again for your help.