Monday, June 5, 2017

Autopilot... Ready!

A year ago, I made the mistake of crossing the gulf without an autopilot. I found out the hard way that a tiller tied with ropes just doesn't work. No matter how straight you tie the tiller, currents, waves, and winds alter your course and before you know it, you're way off course.

A sailor friend of mine, Mike on s/v Solana, told me about a way to connect a small tiller autopilot to my Monitor windvane and though the tiller autopilot may be undersized for your particular boat, because it is rigged to the windvane, the windvane rudder would handle all the muscle work. I checked out Monitor's website and a video or two and decided to give it a shot.

Though I haven't tested it yet, the tiller autopilot to windvane system is installed and from what I can tell in the slip, appears to be working. The pics are pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, leave a message at the beep.

Fair seas and God bless!













6 comments:

  1. Tiller pilot should lie horizontally.

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    1. Thanks Andre... I can shave a little off the starboard.

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  2. I have heard of people doing the same thing. I have a tiller pilot on my boat (don't know if it works yet) but setup to connect directly to the tiller.

    Hope your setup works out for you.

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    1. I'll let you know Dan... hope all is well with you.

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    2. all is well. I've been painting my fuel tank lately.

      https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ihI0gQDVAws/WTHyB8c6vOI/AAAAAAAAD5s/Yn78PzB9v1UozcVJRt7imC5dtxxRSV_xwCLcB/s1600/IMAG2537.jpg

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    3. Wow... it looks great. Hope there's a gauge to tell you fuel levels. I have to use a wooden dowel to determine my tank levels... doubt you could do that.

      Looks great!

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