Reply To: electrical gear on a HT26

Hi,

I would think carefully before going for any interfaced system especially if you are single-handed.

I came from the Azores to the UK in a Twins 36 last month, that had been professionally fitted with a Raymarine system. It crashed three times due to one of the dislays apparently corrupting the system leaving us without autopilot,compass & GPS. Twice this occurred in the early hours of the morning and was eventually 'cured' by ditching the control panel and directly wiring-in the hand held remote.
Even with three of us on board the thought of hand steering for over 800 miles was daunting!

The only advantages I can see of an integrated system is that it it can show your VMG and you don't have to key in your heading to the autopilot from the GPS.On a sailing boat the autopilot is frequently set with more refernce to the wind-direction than the ultimate destination, so I wonder how useful this last advantage is.

Regards……………………..Smallcat