Auto Pilot

[hornets nest]

Hey guys I know its probably been discussed over and over but here it goes want to get and autopilot for the 26' Islander that I just replaced the steering system with a new cable and tilt rotary helm, was looking at the raymarine x5 sportpilot and the simrod at12 I think have heard good and bad from the dealers but wanted to here from the customers on what they have to say. The tr12 gold to run a kicker would be nice but at the new $28oo.00 price tag and a new 4 stroke kicker at $2500.00-$3600.00 is out of my price range. What would you guys do. My 8yr old can't quite handle it yet ha ha he just today brought a king in on a 10'6" diver rod by himself for the first time today, Its not bad when you have 3 that can drive, net and fight the fish but when there is only two and your going into the waves watch out.

[c-cast]

I have the sport pilot . It works well in 1-2 ft. In 3-4 ft. still need to go with the wind.It holds its course, and warns you when you go off your course. I could not tell you about other kinds as mine came with my current boat.

[Paulywood]

I have the Raymarine X-5. I have been happy with it so far. It was easy to install. However, before you buy it you might want to contact Raymarine. I have heard that they will not be making anymore units. Simrad also discontinued their rotary AP's. But I guess one of the main Simrad AP guys went to Sitex and they just came out with a new rotary autopilot based off the Simrad design. They are brand new and a lot of dealers don't have them yet. After this weekend I would recommend getting a rudder reference with the X-5. When the wind would blow us off course it would have trouble figuring out which way to turn the outdrive in order to make a correction.

[1mainiac]

Sadly the truth is for cable steered boats there is not really a good AP option. I packaged a X5 with my boat when I bought it 3 years ago after waiting all summer for it I gave up and got my money back. It has since been released and removed from the market 2 times. By the time you move up to a quality AP and drive unit for a cable steered boat you will spend just as much for it as you would to convert the boat to Hyd steering and get a even better system. Which has been my plan for the last 2 years I am thinking I might go back to plan A which was buy a boat that already has the stuff I want on it. Looking at a Boston Whaler 285 Conquest with twin 250 Optimax Mercs. So far the only drawback I see is the ammount of gas it will drink if I push both sticks all the way forward roughly 65gph at 53mph or .7 mpg. While the idea of being able to run across the lake and fish WI would be cool the 600 or 700 bucks in gas would suck. Filling the 420 gal gas tank does not sound like fun either.

[plumkrazy]

i have fish off a 285 conquest and is a great fishing boat and it only holds 207 gallons of gas

[tbromund]

If you can find a Simrad AP12 of AP14 in stock somewhere, those AP's are awesome. I had an old sportpilot+ prior to getting my AP14 and the Simrad is 10X the unit the older Raymarine was. Never tried the new Ray unit.

Before you spend thousands of dollars converting to Hyd steering, I'd try and find a Simrad in stock somewhere. It's really a shame Navico decided to scrap the rotary AP's from the Simrad Line. I guess there's more money in forcing you to convert to Hyd.

Keep in mind that you will need a minimum of 10" of clearance behind the helm for the simrad unit to clear as it replaces the existing helm unit/steering assembly entirely and the drive motor is behind the dash.

Tim

Edited August 15, 2010 by tbromund
added detail

[1mainiac]

Thanks Phil must have been a typo in the ad I was looking at or maybe it had bigger tanks installed since it is on the east coast for running offshore. I also gave some thought to the Simrad system however it will not fit in my boat without cutting holes in the bulkhead to have it stick thru into the head. I have also been on boats with several differant AP systems and the hyd systems are much better. Simrad did not give up on AP's for cable steered boats they still offer a system for it however they gave up on the rotory helm you can get the AP24 with a cable drive system but the price quoted to me was just under 5 grand installed. which was about the same as the quote to have my boat converted to hyd and a Garmin GHP10 installed. The problem I have is to get what I want I will be putting close to 10 to 14 grand into my boat and will be lucky if it raises the boat value by more than a couple of grand. Versus selling my boat or trading it in and getting what I really wanted to start with. Since the more I think about it my boat will never be exactly what I want no matter how much money I put into it.