Autopilot

[thompsm7]

I've been convinced by several of my friends, that my married life will improve 10x if I install an autopilot on my boat... Yes, most of you understand exactly what I'm saying here. All jokes aside, I'm finding it hard to decide on what type/brand/price point I need to be looking so I'll set up the scenario.

I'm a weekend fisherman with a 23' Celebrity walkaround. The boat has a Mercruiser 305/Alpha One outdrive with hydraulic assist steering. I've got a Garmin chartplotter, so I can use NMEA to navigate to way points. Given that I only fish about 50-75 hours a year, what's the best autopilot for me? Here are a few questions I couldn't resolve with my hours of research:

- Drive Unit... Should I go with a wheel pilot like Raymarine X-5? Sterndrive or cable type drive? Hydraulic pump?

- Brand... I've heard mixed reviews on Raymarine. Not much feedback on Simrad or Garmin.

- Cost... What should I be looking to pay?

Bottom line, I need the boat to go in a straight line in 3-4 footers without spinning my downrigger lines into a pretzel. Any additional features will be nice, but let's start with the straight line? Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[Reel Overtime]

I had a sport pilot installed by anchor marine in erie, june 2011. This autopilot was given to my wife for a mothers day gift, ya!! she was not impressed. First time we used it she loved it, now she sits on the front and sun tans while I fish, nice. A tech from raymarine talked to me for an hour reasuring my that the bugs were worked out of the old system and this new one will work fine and it does. We mainly fish erie for walleye at 1.5 to 2.0 mph. Only down fall is that its noisy , hope you have good luck with yours.

[High Bidder]

I have a Simrad unit with a linear drive on my IO. It is a great system but its rather expensive to buy a new linear drive unit. I was lucky and found a unit that a guy bought and never used and got it for 1/3 the cost of a new one. I would have went with a Sport Pilot if they weren't recalled when I wanted one. Also the Simrad AP14 was no longer available either. So I opted for the Simrad 2401 system. Waves don't seem to affect its steering effectiveness as much as wind. If there is a crosswind it takes awhile until the computer system "learns" how to compensate for it. If you're in heavy traffic it may not learn fast enough. Also to connect it to you GPS unit you have to make your own adapter cable.

High Bidder

[thompsm7]

Thanks for the feedback guys.... Does anyone have experience with the Si-Tex Mechanical Dashboard Drive (seems to compete with the Raymarine SPX-5R)? I'm being told by a very good marina that the Si-Tex is more reliable and the price is close to the SPX-5R. I am curious if it handles waves okay (meaning the computer learns and doesn't do "crazy ivans"... After all, a 23' boat on Lake Ontario isn't very big and I get tossed around quite a bit.

[fishaddict]

We have been using Raymarine 6001 a/p for 2 years now. I would go with hydraulic drive if your main steer is hydraulic. Just keep in mind that they do not work well in pounding seas and low speed. Your engine would not have enough thrust to correct your deviation.

Mike

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Knotlost]

Last year I got the raymarine X5 and its great. I have a 350 with power assist and it works good even when the main is off, and im running just the kicker motor. It still has enough umph to steer it fine. I did get the nicer computor for it and its nice not sure its worth the $ or not, but the unit definitly is.

It is a bit noisy but its not to big of deal to me.