Hello everyone,
I got the boat hauled out a week ago to do some bottom work and a few other projects. One of them is installing a new raymarine ev-200 below deck autopilot, I dropped the rudder today but couldn't pull it out completely as the boat is just not quite high up enough. Removing the radial drive was a PITA, 3 out of 4 bolts snapped, was enough to release the pressure though and I got it out in one piece. Took it home to take it apart, got lucky and was able to drill out the 3 bolts that snapped. It shows a fair bit of corrosion but won't know for sure if I'll re-use it until i soda blast it.
I'm having a fab shop make me a tiller arm for the autopilot, 1" aluminum plate with the same bore hole as the radial drive and a coupe of 3/8in bolts should do the trick. Playing around with the idea of using the tiller arm as "clamp" around the radial drive, not sure I'll bother with that idea though.
The second part of the equation is going to be glassing a mount to the hull for the linear drive to bolt on to, can't start on that till the tiller arm is built though. Going to make a jig that will bolt on to the tiller arm at 90° on one end and the other end will have 4 holes on it to show me where on the hull I need to make the mount.
Did you check Edson for a tiller arm? That is where I purchased mine. They are expensive—$400+ but are engineered for the purpose and your rudder post.
Also, make sure your hull mounting is super-solid/bulletproof. I have a Simrad (ex Robertson) electric/hydraulic autopilot that I am currently in the process of re-engineering and remounting after it self-destructed recently, ripping off the hull—after four years of use. My ram generates up to 750 lbs of torque—which was too much for the the old engineering/install to take. Hopefully, not this time around. I have beefed up the hull around the mounting location with a 1-1/2 in. solid oak landing pad sandwiched between 11 layers of biaxial fiberglass and epoxy— topping that with a stainless steel pedestal to mount the ram. I have completed the fiberglass work and the pedestal is at the welders. Once back up and sailing I will post pics. Good luck with your install.
Yes I've considered the Edson tiller, overprice in my opinion. 1" thick plate cut to the right shape is all I need. As for the mount for the linear drive I'm 100% with you, making the shape of the block out of foam, placing a 1/2 plate on top of it and glassing the whole thing to the hull. It will be fully encapsulated from all sides and glass will extend a good 4~5" all the way around. Once cured I'll drill and tap the aluminum plate under the glass and bolt up the ram.
How do you intend to attach your tiller arm to the rudder post?
You might (or might not) find this thread interesting...
https://groups.io/g/Catalina30/topic/under_decks_autopilot_on_92/76086704
Especially the links in msgs Aug 24 #106722 and Aug 26 #106740 to the finished product
Quote from: Noah on October 12, 2020, 08:46:02 PM
How do you intend to attach your tiller arm to the rudder post?
1" plate water jet cut to the shape I show in the last picture.
Are you bolting to the radial quadrant or to rudder post? IMO (and Edson's I believe who made the quadrant and C34 steering system) the tiller arm needs to capture/clamp around the rudder post and pin horizontally through/to it. Not vertically bolted up or down through the radial quadrant. Not strong enough.
The way I have it pictured would be just as strong, it's essentially bolted around the shaft, It's just that it's also clamping the radial drive. I'll take a couple of other pictures as it's hard to understand from the one I posted.
Quote from: Noah on October 13, 2020, 09:03:07 AM
Are you bolting to the radial quadrant or to rudder post? IMO (and Edson's I believe who made the quadrant and C34 steering system) the tiller arm needs to capture/clamp around the rudder post and pin horizontally through/to it. Not vertically bolted up or down through the radial quadrant. Not strong enough.
Interesting but why wouldn't the radial wheel be strong enough? In what way do you mean?
If the steering wheel drives the post thru the radial wheel, why wouldn't the radial wheel be strong enough to drive the post using the arm?
That said - belt/suspenders - my prior post shows the pics how to bolt to both the radial wheel and the post, and two vids of the finished assembly in action. Not located beliw deck, per se - but in the radial drive chamber on the 30 mk-III. Same concept, just different location of the radial wheel.
I don't know the engineering behind the "not strong enough" comment, that came from my previous conversations with Edson and their literature, as well my autopilot and other's manuals that cautions against attaching directly to radial quadrant and tiller arm should be attached to rudder independently. Perhaps the casting is not beefy enough for continual sheer point loading, not flat enough??? Don't know. Again not only am I not a mechanic, but not a mechanical engineer either! 8)
The radial drive isn't strong enough if you're only bolting the pin directly to a surface of the radial drive, it's also not possible in my case as the linear drive wants to be 10in on Center between rudder post and its attachment point.
Got it! So solidly "sistering" your custom flat bar stainless arm to the top or bottom of radial wheel/quadrant itself, instead of independently to the rudder post, should probably mitigate the concern of attaching the ram directly to the radial wheel/quadrant.
Sistering is a good way to put it.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0QszbztMbClwMIfIi_wEbQQFA
Small project update, tiller arm is made, just need to drill a few hole to final size and it's ready to go.
Nice!! So i thought it was going to sister up to one side of the quadrant. Does it now mount all the way around the rudder post?
Yes it is now separate. Change my plans as it was easier and cheaper to do it as a standalone piece.
IMO—it is a better solution!
That actually looks pretty similar to my thru-bolted bronze Edson arm (which was about $400). I ended up installing my shelf/mount aft of the fuel tank and the tiller facing the port quarter/stern. My RAM arm (Raymarine type 1 linear drive) was too long to fit perfectly athwartships. The pilot motor doesn't care what orientation it is to the rudder post, so long as you are square 90 degrees at mid throw and +/- a degree or 2 vertically. Noah was a big help, and I still have lots of pics of the install and shelf build, feel free to PM me.
That is likely the way I will mount mine.
Tiller arm is done, now just need to start assembling things. I still need to paint the bottom so it's gonna be a couple of weeks before rudder gets re installed, but here's a pic of the arm on the rudder stock.
Also, for those of you that were concerned about how strong the arm needs to be, think about this... the weakest point in the arm is the mounts at the back of the linear drive, there's maybe 1/8in of aluminum holding the thru pin at the back end of it...
Small update. Test fitting the rudder with the radial drive and tiller for the AP.
Thanks for the uodate!! I was thinking about the project just the other day wondering how you've been making progress.
It's been a slow go, had a week off at the beginning of the project but that was back in September lol. Since then I've been super busy at work and only able to do things on the weekend, and because I'm doing a lot of glassing/fairing/sanding I can only do it when it's not raining, and that's hard to get when you live in Vancouver lol.
Was ready to do a lot more today but now the temp dropped down to 4ºC and epoxy doesn't like it. Which is why I was able to spend time figuring out the rudder.
It's been depressing not being able to splash the boat, but I'm a lot closer than further as a friend of mine says :D
Logo you do nice work. :D
Thanks Glenn! I don't like doing something twice so I strive to do it well the first time around.
Does anyone know why the cables for the steering are so crudely terminated? U bolt cable clamps and electrical tape hardly seems like a good solution. I've been contemplating to have a rigging shop swage on threaded fittings at the end of the steering cables. Other than having to measure very exactly the length they need to be am I overseeing a very clear reason why it's not done that way?
My understanding is so that they can be adjusted relatively easily by loosening the clamps.
I doubt you could pass a swaged eye down the pedestal and around/through the idler pulleys.
Craig
Quote from: Craig Illman on January 25, 2021, 09:40:29 AM
I doubt you could pass a swaged eye down the pedestal and around/through the idler pulleys.
Craig
Perhaps not an eye, but a threaded end maybe. It might be a question of how much space is needed for the cable to ride on the radial/quadrant that dictates the cable clamps. I have wondered the same about how crude that double clamp system looks. I suppose it works and is VERY field servicable in the event a repair needs to be made.
Spent a few minutes on the computer designing a top bearing for the rudder, this design will get rid of the up/down play and also take the side to side play as well as increasing the sidewall area on which the rudder shaft rides on. Will post pictures of the top bearing when I get it back from machine shop. It will be made out of delrin.
Very cool! What platform are you designing in?
I use Sketchup for anything 3D and TurboCAD for all my 2D drawings. Didn't mind spending $90 for turbo cad designer but I'm not paying close to $1000 for the occasional time I need to tinker with a 3D design so Sketchup does me fine and it's free.
I used to use autocad for all my scale drawings but havent yet found a good choice for 3d designs. I miss desktop applications.
Top rudder bearing/bushing/spacer done! Always so cool to hold a physical part that was only in my head and a computer render just a few days ago.
Awesome!!! I forget how you made it. Was this a milling machine with delrin?
Quote from: waughoo on January 30, 2021, 08:18:02 AM
Awesome!!! I forget how you made it. Was this a milling machine with delrin?
I wish I had the setup to make it myself, I had a machine shop make it for me. The boat yard I'm at has a a huge machine shop as there's lots of commercial fishing boats that get hauled out for repairs.
Awesome day at the boat today! The top rudder bearing couldn't have had worked out better!
Had to enlarge the hole in the cabin sole (under inspection port where the retaining collar is) for the new bearing to fit into. Wasn't too hard, used the closest hole saw I had and then a rasper bit on a drill to open it up until the bearing fit.
All my measuring worked out as both the height of the bearing and the inside bore are perfect for a slop free install. No up down play and no side to side play, rudder feels solid!
Then I re attached the radial drive and new tiller arm for the autopilot and market their position on the rudder stock, dropped the rudder and took it all home to drill out the thru bolts for both the radial drive and the tiller arm. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of when they were installed, I'll take some once it's installed for good.
That is super cool! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished install pics.
My friend Zen took this picture of me checking rudder angles, was checking to see what 35° Looked like in real life. To be honest I'd prefer having the ability to go to 45° for maneuvering in tight spaces, but raymarine specifies I need to limit rudder to a maximum of 35°.
I wouldn't worry about it. My Simrad autopilot has the same rudder stop limit/restriction and 35 degrees works just fine. In my experience with most fin keeled sailboats, any more rudder angle is just wasted and results in "stalling out" and doesn't really help in faster maneuvering.
Good to know Noah! I had a feeling that may be the case but it's nice to hear from real world experience.
Yesterday and today got the holes for the thru bolts drilled in the rudder stock, got one done in the garage (kinda worked out) and the other one at the machine shop I use on his milling machine (way more accurate :D)
Dropped off both the radial drive and tiller arm at the anodizing place, they said they'll try to anodize the cast radial drive as well to see if it works out, if not they will powder coat it. Should have them back by Friday.
Exciting!!
Got the pieces back from anodizing.
Nice! The radial wheel came out better than I expected.
Looks good!! I see they were able to anodize the radial rather than powder coat it. Thats good news.
Quote from: Noah on February 06, 2021, 06:30:56 PM
Nice! The radial wheel came out better than I expected.
Yeah me too. Even the guy at the anodizing place had his doubts, said if it didn't come out right he'd powder coat it for me instead. At least now it won't get any worse and I'll likely get another 29 years out of it.
It's been a while since I've updated anything on the topic. Sadly it's still not installed as I've taken a break from projects to simply enjoy the boat and go sailing as much as I could this summer. Fall is here so I'm starting to work on the boat again. I finally got the jig all done and now it stays locked in at 90°. Expect to see some more regular updates.
Is this a jig to locate the mounting point of the autopilot drive?
Yes it is, it satisfies all the requirements set by raymarine. It's exactly at 90° in both planes and is at 27.5" from pin to pin. Once I'm done with my project the jig will be up for grabs.
Some progress...
Mount the tiller arm back on and was able to play around with the jig. Turns out there's only way way I can mount this ram with my setup, it has to be mounted upside down hanging. A bit more of a PITA to accomplish but the upside is that it's going to be less in the "way". I will likely have a bracket made of stainless steel, attached to the cockpit floor with one side bolting on where the manual bilge pumps is and the other side where the shore power connections is, that way it's going to be fairly strong.
Logo- I think you have already seen my install and I know a MKI is different, but you might consider the "tower" mount to the hull as an alternative option.
Thanks Noah, but it won't fit if I mount it right side up, the body of the linear drive would hit the "ceiling".
Logo... i spotted in one of your photos what looks to be a glassed in propane locker on the port side. Can you tell me/us more about that? It looks a whole lot bigger than what I can fit in the factory box made by seaward that is mounted in my mk1.5.
Hey Alex, I wasn't aware that they weren't all the same. I never really payed too much attention to it. If I don't end up going to work tomorrow I'll be at the marina and can take some more detailed pictures. From what I remember though it has a 10lb bottle in it and the actual tub is a screwed in fiberglass insert.
Thanks... I look forward to seeing a bit more about it.
Well not much progress today, a lot of staring and slow processing lol. Ran into a snag when I was trying to figure out if the rudder was actually amidship before I start marking anything. Didn't have my GoPro with me and my arms are too short to reach where the rudder meats the hull to feel with my fingers it it's straight or not, and I wasn't willing to go for a swim... Heading back to the boat in the morning with my GoPro and some lasers as well.
I did draw a 10" radius with a 35°/30°/0°/30°/35° marked on a piece of cardboard so that when I find the midship position I can mark those spots on the ceiling.
Oh and as requested I took pictures of the gas locker, it's in fact made my Seaward products and the model number is C903
Thanks for the photos of the propane locker. I wish thats what I had, however I suspect that you dont have a cockpit ahower back there between the two lazzerette lockers. Mine is on the port side vertical face of the "exit" through the transom.
I do have one, it's just on the starboard side.
Gotcha... that must be how the worked around that larger locker occupying the whole lazzerette side.
More staring today, but I got a game plan so time wasn't wasted. Where the manual bilge pump is attached there's been a leak for many many years and all the core in that area has dry rotted.
What I'm going to do is remove the manual bilge pump and remove all the rotten plywood till I get to glass, I'll do that in the vertical and the floor area as well. Once I'm down to solid core I think I'll just rebuild in pure glass and integrate the mount for the ram into that, I don't think I'll have strength issues that way.
I also marked exactly where the center is, then where 30° and 35° is. Took a few pictures but not sure it's very visible, marked with a sharpie.
Quote from: Noah on September 28, 2021, 07:37:49 PM
Logo- I think you have already seen my install and I know a MKI is different, but you might consider the "tower" mount to the hull as an alternative option.
Hey Noah, how did you bond your tower to the hull? I see four bolts and I read that you glassed a 1.5" oak panel onto the hull. Did you simply put the nuts into some kind of rebated hole on the hull side of the oak panel? If so, how did you make certain that they can't/won't ever turn?
My original install 6 years ago was done poorly by an "experienced" guy I hired. I was not yet retired at the time, and I did not supervise job adequately. The original tower was made out of plywood and West System resin. While the shape of the tower itself was designed semi-OK, it was only bonded to the hull with fibers and resin and not bonded nor encapsulated in fiberglass. After five years, while sailing on autopilot offshore the whole thing suffered a catastrophic collapse. The autopilot "quit" and manual steering was severely limited. Once safely anchored, I removed bulkheads and water tank and discovered the tower had detached from the hull, with the ram still attached to the radial drive/quadrant. The whole thing was dragging around in the bilge. Turns out the plywood on the tower had spilt between layers of ply at its base, with one layer still glued to the hull. The ram was OK albeit spewed some hydraulic fluid as it was being dragged flipped around in the bilge—but thankfully no other boat damage.
Mount #2
A: Prepping the Hull
First step was to strengthen the hull around designated mounting position: I did this by fiberglassing 7x 7 x 1-1/2 in. thick White Oak block to the hull encapsulated in 7 layers of 1708 biaxial fiberglass cloth and West System resin. The wood block was shaped/tapered to the correct angle to match the hull (using angle grinder, and chisel and sandpaper) prior to glassing. The entire landing pad area was appropriately expanded past the wood block using glass to about 14 x14 in. to help spread the loads across a larger area of the hull. I may have gone "overboard" on this, but my ram develops 750 lbs of thrust and I didn't want any more system failures in the future.
B: The New Mounting Tower
I designed this and had it welded/machined by an excellent local fabricator. Primary brief was; "it had to be bulletproof and easily removable and reinstall-able to allow access to cockpit drain hoses, bilge pump hoses and aft hull thru-hull if/when required."
The tower/mount is all stainless steel and built in two pieces. Piece #1 is a 3/8 in. thick flat plate that is permanently attached to the hull—using eight (#14) 1-1/2 in. flathead machine screws bedded with West System epoxy. The plate is also bedded in thickened epoxy.
The screws are countersunk into plate to make a smooth surface upon which to mount the tower. The plate also has 7 threaded holes (5/16 in.) to bolt the tower to the plate.
The Tower: the tower is also 3/8 in. stainless steel. It bolts onto the plate with (7) 5/16 hex-head bolts using blue loctite. The ram pivot base (1/4 stainless steel-which is part of the ram) bolts onto the tower using (4) 5/16 in. bolts and nylock nuts.
All is working well—so far. I can also attest to its ease of removability, as i just did that to replace my cockpit drains and a bilge hose. All went smoothly.
Final install:
Thank you Noah. That's an extremely useful description.
Sure do love seeing that installation Noah. It is absolutely beautiful!
Nice Jon Noah! Interesting that there's a lot more of your rudder shaft exposed below the quadrant, I would have mounted my tiller below as well if I could.
Question to those who have an evolution autopilot installed on their C34's.
Where did you mount the EV1 sensor? and is it behaving, as in how much interference is there in your particular chosen location?
I put mine below the galley sink slightly above the opening door at the hot water tank. It is mounted on the 45° diagonal part of the galley liner (inside the cabinet in case that is unclear). My goal was to try and get it as close to the center of the moment of effort in all three axis. I haven't used it much at all so I can't say much to your second question. I used a magnectic interference app that showed that spot to be just fine.
aft cabin, no issues :?
Thanks guys! Much appreciated. Alex you're the second person that I've heard mounting it there, will give that a shot.
Let me know if you want to see any photos. It is hard to get a good one based on where it is, but I can do my best if you think it will help.
Quote from: LogoFreak on March 18, 2022, 07:28:12 PM
Question to those who have an evolution autopilot installed on their C34's.
Where did you mount the EV1 sensor? and is it behaving, as in how much interference is there in your particular chosen location?
If you have not mounted your EV1 yet, you might download the Gemeco iNstall app from the Play store or Appstore. It turns your smart phone into a very sensitive magnetometer. I found it very useful and have been completely happy with my location.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sailracer.gemecoinstall (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sailracer.gemecoinstall)
Quote from: waughoo on March 21, 2022, 09:14:50 AM
Let me know if you want to see any photos. It is hard to get a good one based on where it is, but I can do my best if you think it will help.
Did you have to remove the sink in order to mount the EV-1? I guessing you epoxied a piece of ply to screw the mount to?
Sink stayed in place. I mounted a pice of ply in there to screw into. It was a tricky place to work, but I love that I can't see it. I also used the iNstall app as suggested above. It helped to confirm I was okay to mount it there. I got it as close as I could in line with the boats direction of travel and then adjusted it out on the water when there wasnt tide or wind to effect direction of travel. The final adjustments to heading I will make in the software.
Sounds good, on my to do list for this upcoming weekend.
Logo... i'm curious amongst all the other items you've shown us, if you have made headway on the below deck autopilot? I can't remember if that was part of your list for this round, or if that will be later.
Working on it this week!
Looking forward to an update!!
Actually I do have an update, changed my mind as to location of the drive unit.
Been there, done that. Good luck. 8) Let me know if I can help with info.
Noah, want to edit your message and remove the "with info", then I'll for sure take you up on the offer 🤣
Ha! My offer was very carefully wordsmithed...
So it looks like you moved the tiller arm below the radial drive. Did you make a thinner one? I seem to remember you didn't have room there.
There was always room below the quadrant, reason I had it above is because I wanted to have it point forward for east access and I didn't want to make the tank shorter to clear the tiller arm. New layout will have the tiller arm offset to port side and be pointing aft. I think it's the best compromise for a lot of factors. Time to make a mount...
Gotcha... looking forward to seeing how you do it. Just completed the last bit of plumbing today for the boiler. Should be able to fill it up and test later this week.
Stupid work got in the way this week, working on this tomorrow instead.
Finally got something to update with! Pretty happy with the mock-up.
I very much like this angle!!! I was looking at my spot and it would be pretty tight to go 90 degrees to port. Also, love the foam mock up idea. I have been using 1/2" ply... so much less forgiving.
I've been using the foam for parts for years, very easy to shape your ideas. The foam will become the actual part in the end, the strength comes from the glass and foam only acts as the "mold".
Alex—call me conservative and gun shy as I am, based upon my experience with breaking my first mount. I would suggest lots of fiberglass and perhaps even build up the hull area underneath the mount with some glass too, to help spread the load and reduce point loading. That area of the hull is not very thick.
Alex, Noah is right :thumb:, I did install of bracket last year for same autopilot, took Noah's advise and produced bracket out of 1/4" mild steel. They are substantial forces, pushing and puling. You don't want to take chances! No issues, working flawlessly!
2 square foot area where loads are being dissipated, 1/4in glass. More than enough.
Also, this piece of 3/4in 6061 aluminum plate is getting glassed under. It will get drilled and tapped for fasteners.
I am a long way from installing a below deck pilot, but am very keen on everyone's suggestion for the proper stength due to the loads.
I agree that the linear drive can exert significant loads, it is rated for 650lb thrust. However this linear drive is also rated for boats up to 22,000lbs. Our boat are a little over half of that, highly doubt our rudders can exert as much resistance to the drive to push it to its peak thrust rating.
I glassed reenforced a square hull area approx. 18 in. wide/high and encapsulated a 1-1/2 thick slab of white oak sandwich inside. While I don't really know how thick the hull is, it is quite translucent, as I could see the bootstripe from the inside. Kinda spooky. Wasn't taking any chances. :D
Took out the shelf for the aft water tank and the aft hanging locker. Really didn't like that setup, rear hanging locker must weigh 20~30lbs... now I have great access to properly glass in the autopilot mount and really spread the load out over a large area. Once I'm done with that I'm going to design a fuel tank to go where the old shelf for the water tank went. Likely be able to increase my fuel capacity to 60 gallons (being conservative).
Wow! Certainly gives you access.
I just redid my aft water tank shelf as the one I inherited was rotted out from past un-repaired water leaks. I made two sets of cleats and a removeable shelf to replace it. Thus, if needed, I can take the water tank out and remove the shelf for access.
Resurrecting this topic rather than starting a new one.
My boat guy is having trouble figuring out what sort of bracket he should make to anchor the Raymarine EV100 ram to the hull of my MkII. Has anyone got any photos or drawings of a completed installation using the Raymarine ram??
LogoFreak seemed to be working on this, but I can't see any pics of the final install. Noah's solution is very neat but doesn't use a Raymarine ram - as far as I can tell.
Another forumite did it by mounting the ram on the underside of the sugar scoop, but this requires an extensive mod to the water tank. I'd like to avoid this if I can.
Really struggling here. Any help and advice would be much appreciated.
There isn't a real simple answer here. Installing an autopilot ram is a very custom installation. I think nearly everything you find will have required at least some fabrication and tabbing into the hull to reinforce a mounting bracket. Your installer is going to have to figure out the best spot to build that and either do so or have someone else do it.
It's not that custom!
It's an Edson tiller arm, a Raymarine EV100 ram and a Catalina 34 hull!
I'm just hoping someone's done it before and has got pictures of their final solution. :D
It is somewhat custom.
1. First do you have room to mount Edson tiller arm? Some have had issues with not enough clearance to mount it on rudder post.
2. Once you determine rudder mount then you have to figure out a place (correct angle/geometry) and arm "throw distance" to mount the hull end of the ram.
3. Then you have to build a STRONG mount SECURELY attached/glassed to the hull. Trust me, just gluing it to hull with thickened epoxy is NOT enough!
Hi Noah, yes the arm fits on the post. And, yes, I told/showed my guys about your install and the 12 layers of reinforcing.
QuoteIt's an Edson tiller arm, a Raymarine EV100 ram and a Catalina 34 hull!
I'm just hoping someone's done it before and has got pictures of their final solution
There's information here somewhere. Need to search. What I remember, and why I went with the wheel pilot, is that on a MKll the aft water tank needs to be removed to make room for the tiller arm and ram. Do remember someone modifying the water tank to make room for the ram.
Hope that helps,
Jim
I probably went "overkill" because my first install done by someone I hired and didn't supervise :cry4` very well well. That install self-destructed and fell apart while single handing on a trip. The hydraulic ram remained attached to the tiller arm, but not to the hull, because the mount tor off the hull. The ram was dragging around in the bilge. Consequently it resulted in no autopilot (duh!). I could hand steer the boat...but I was only able to make turns to Starboard as the ram kept jamming against the hull and hoses, etc. wen turning to Port. I managed to get to an anchorage, at which point I removed the aft bulkhead and water tank to discover the damage and disconnect the ram from the tiller arm. All-in-all, not a fun trip!
My next/current install, while maybe overkill, is working well and should last the life of the boat. Knock on teak!
Noah's tale of his previous install is exactly why this is a custom project. Catalina yachts themselves said they had not really built the 34 with a below deck autopilot in mind, thus provisions for an install were not made from the factory.
I can understand the frustration of what likely started as a simple idea that has now turned into a large project. As Noah's story illustrates, doing it less than needed has its consequences.
Quote from: Noah on January 17, 2023, 05:39:34 PM
I probably went "overkill" because my first install done by someone I hired and didn't supervise :cry4` very well well. That install self-destructed and fell apart while single handing on a trip. The hydraulic ram remained attached to the tiller arm, but not to the hull, because the mount tor off the hull. The ram was dragging around in the bilge. Consequently it resulted in no autopilot (duh!). I could hand steer the boat...but I was only able to make turns to Starboard as the ram kept jamming against the hull and hoses, etc. wen turning to Port. I managed to get to an anchorage, at which point I removed the aft bulkhead and water tank to discover the damage and disconnect the ram from the tiller arm. All-in-all, not a fun trip!
My next/current install, while maybe overkill, is working well and should last the life of the boat. Knock on teak!
Yeah, I read that Noah. We're aiming to replicate your level of 'overkill'. I was hoping someone might have done this already with a Raymarine arm.
We, think we've found enough space to do this by mounting the arm upside down. At the moment, it looks like we don't need to reshape the water tank. I'd still love to see some pics if anyone has done the same.
The alternative, which a guy called Graham describes somewhere on here, is to mount the ram longitudinally by bolting it to the underside of the sugarscoop. But that does need the tank to be reshaped. Plus, I'd like to avoid putting bolts through the hull structure.
Progress update.
Is that coosa board?
No, just some fiberglass sheet I had laying around.
Progress has been made :clap
3 layers of 1708 on tonight. Final pieces going on tomorrow evening. Saturday should be drilling holes for the ram and mounting it.
Progress is painfully slow, very limited free time so it's been painful.
It's mounted now! About 80% done. Need to limit rudder travel to +/- 35°, mount the rudder reference sensor and run the wires to the acu. Getting really close to sea trials.
This is VERY exciting news Logo!!!
Do you have a photo of the other side of your vertical web?
Not at the moment but I can to take one tomorrow and post it. It's no different that's the front, except a bit of a steeper angle.
Logo-
Did you put any glass down on the hull to beef it up BEFORE you glassed the triangular right angle "blade" to the hull? Also, did you add any foam spacer between it and the hull to mitigate the possibility of a "hard spot", or point loading occurring where blade meets the hull?
All done, dockside wizard completed. So far it's all working very well. Sea trial tomorrow or Wednesday.
Noah - I didn't do any of what you're suggesting. I'm not concerned with point loading with the amount of glass I've added, I'm also going to add more "webbing" I'm just pressed for time at the moment as I'm heading out for a week up north. Not planing to use the autopilot under sail much, only while motoring which will likely be a fair bit. When I get back I will beef if up further.