vetting

I've had my 26ft fiberglass boat for 10 years now. This is my first year on jackstands instead of a trailer for winter storage. So I decided this year to sand the decades of random ablative paint off and took it down to the bare gelcoat. I'm going to do a few layers of Interprotect 2000e as a barrier coat and then new ablative paint. Do you think bottom paint color matters for trolling? Does anyone thing blue is better than black?

Do you feel like you have to turn wheel a ton to dock? The 1.7 is less effort but a lot more turns from lock to lock than the 2.4

Yeah that would be awesome if you could look to see what helm you have installed. I already had a EV-200 with the newer Sport Pilot installed - the one they dont sell or even service anymore. You run a I/O with a kicker tied to the outdrive right?

So now that I got the Raymarine AP pump, what helm should I go with if I eliminate the mecruiser power assist? 1.7 HH5271 2.0 HH5273 2.4 HH5272

@GAMBLER do you run your hydraulics hooked to your main and then have you kicker tied to the main with a bar?

Snagged a Raymarine Type 1 Pump for $550 brand new - so almost $300 off. Currently trying to figure out what helm to purchase.

I'm leaning more towards going full hydraulic now. Since I troll on my kicker with the main shutoff (power steering pump not running), should I look at cylinders that will completely eliminate the power assist system?

Yeah thats what Im thinking my top 2 options are right now. Octopus drive and a new set of cables. or New helm, steering cylinder, and type 1 pump. Going Octopus and new set of cables is probably cheaper, but I really want what is going to give me the best performance while trolling at 2mph. Anyone with experience what is the better setup performance wise?

@GAMBLER What helm/pump/ram did you go with?

I was also look at that. However, the steering cables are also 30+ years old. Would the autopilot control physically move the wheel with the Octopus drive?

I think one already came with the old kit. Does it really add anything besides it knowing the actual position of the rudder? Right now the I already have speed feedback since its hooked up to a Raymarine MFD. That way the autopilot knows how hard to correct and it also uses the data from the multi axis puck.

Yeah I think will be around $2000 for the pump/helm/ram. I would think I would still need a hydraulic system of some sort if I just did AP on the kicker with my current setup.

Currently run a Raymarine EV-200 with Sport Drive Wheel Pilot package (T70159) for auto pilot. The Sport Drive wheel pilot is going on 6 years old now and is starting to slip. Looking to see what my options are. Go full hydraulic or something else? EV-200 EV1 Sensor Core ACU-200 p70R Autopilot Control Head Sport Drive wheel pilot All networked with a Raymaine A77 and Axiom MFD. Boat is a 89 cobia. 26ft cuddy with a Mercruiser 5.7 with a Alpha One Gen 1 outdrive. Boat is currently cable steer with power steering assist on the main. Newer Yamaha high thrust 9.9 extra long shaft kicker tied to the main outdrive with a ez-steer rod. Salmon trolling at 1.8 to 3.5 mph using just the kicker without the main motor running. So Sport Pilot physically turns the wheel which turns the outdrive which turns the kicker via the ez-steer rod. I use the autopilot for motoring out to the fishing spot and for trolling. The Sport Pilots are no longer sold or serviced. So what are my options? Just go full hydraulic and continue to steer the main which is then linked to the kicker? I assume that would include purchasing a type 1 pump and then a new helm and ram in the rear? Any other options? Thank you ahead of time for any info you can provide.

Hmm, well maybe I'll just go with updated probe only then. Now the real question, sell off the old probe to offset or keep it as an emergency backup

Is there any difference with the actual display unit? I've upgraded fish hawks multiple times through the years, had warranty fixes, and even had to buy an entire unit just to use the display for a week while mine was out for repair. Right now I'm running a X4D. So I've probably put about $3k into fish hawks for the years Im looking at maybe getting the new probe and just wondering if there is any benefit to upgrading to the new display?

They didnt have the ones I wanted - I was looking for multiples of the flat white glow back mag spoons.

Just ordered some through bigpapasportfishing - I contacted them first on FB to make sure they can still get them directly from Wolverine.

Do they still make Wolverine Silver Streak spoons? Looking to pickup a bunch of their glow back spoons and having trouble tracking down a reliable source.