Purchasing new AUTO-PILOT

[Alan & Belinda]

Gemini, the Sport Pilot comes with the rotary control head. How do you find it? Does it have a tack feature?

[Rick & Sue]

I like the rotary control. I use it like a steering wheel to adjust the heading we are on. Each click is a degree. It does not have an automatic tack feature. I guess you could calculate the degrees of your tack and spin the knob to get there. I find that I usually want to steer the tack myself to try and build speed by falling off the wind before settling on the heading I want.

[Alan & Belinda]

And what is the noise level from the drive unit like?

[Rick & Sue]

Sue describes it as “moderately annoying but you get used to it”. We only seem to use it while motoring and it is audible over our very quiet Suzuki 70 at our normal cruising at 2000 rpm but is no longer noticeable at 3000 rpm. We don’t really know about sailing as we cannot really remember using it there. My thought is that the convenience far outweighs the sound level.

[Darry & Leisa Major]

We have the older Raymarine wheel version on our 2000X, (love the auto-tack option)

There is also a certain sound that you need to get used to, especially while under sail.

Kind of like having to get used to those dam seagulls squawking, or that annoying sound of the waves slapping against the side of the hull, or a flogging mainsail over the sound of the skipper snoring at the helm – you know, just the regular sounds on s boat 🙂

[Gerry Mitchell]

A new Raymarine SmartPilot X-5 Sport is for sale on craigslist if anyone is interested.
http://bellingham.craigslist.org/boa/4811418172.html

[Rick & Sue]

This looks like the same drive as mine with maybe a slightly different compass and computer but at $900, it looks like a good deal compared to my almost $2500

[Alan & Belinda]

Well I pulled the trigger on an autopilot. Went with the EV-100 wheel version. Just couldn’t justify the extra for the sport drive. Binnacle.ca has the wheel version on sale right now for $1429 and it has a $100 mail in rebate. Sounds like once the existing stock is gone there will be a price increase due to the dollar sucking. Looking forward now to trying it at the BWY rendezvous/Poets/Friday Harbour cruise.

[Michael Dirk]

Congrats Cenote! No deal like that can be found at our boat show…. kind of wishing I had jumped on the Binnacle.ca deal as well… but still pondering the application. Sport drive is only available on the EV200 at over double the price of EV100… so pondering if a hydraulic conversion is worth doing such as this prior Mac owner did with his Odin:

Any thoughts?
I gather tiller mount is also an option?

[Alan & Belinda]

There are a view topics over on macgregorsailors.com where guys have used the tiller version. I didn’t like the fact that you had leave it connected or go below to disconnect it. If I find the finger space on the wheel too small I will either go with a bigger wheel or use spacers on the doughnut.

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