Windless and powersteering

R

RVP

New member
This is my first post, hope I am doing this properly.
my c-dory is now 1 year old and I want to add a few items
[1] windless
[2] auto piolet
I have twin 50 efi bigfoot mercs it is my understanding that power steering will have to be added. I did upgrade the to the sea star hydralic steering.

any help would be appreciated

RVP [/i]
 
Hi RVP and welcome to the site. Your SeaStar steering is fine, that's what I have on twin Honda 45's. There's lots of windlass info on the site, do a search on that word and you'll find it. The big thing there is to run heavy enough wire for power, they take a lot of "amps"! As for an autopilot, you can search on that word too and find info. I put in a Raymarine ST-6001 autopilot on Captain's choice and with the SeaStar steering, it wasn't too difficult.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Charlie
 
The Tom Cats are running twin 150's with the Sea Star hyraulic steering. As Captain's choice notes, hooking up most of the hyraulic pilots is fairly straight foreward. You do have to bleed the system afterward.

I would look at why you want the auto pilot--is it for fishing or for long runs. Although I have had auto pilots on most of my sailboats, and all of my long distance cruising boats, I have not on the C Dories. If I was doing a lot of trolling of a certain type, I probably woud put in a pilot.
 
If I was looking for a auto pilot for fishing today I would have to consider the simrid systems for one reason the new depth contour tracking mode. heres the description from there web site. It still does all the regular stuff that my raymarine does but this is a add featue that no other auto pilot has.


Depth Contour Tracking DCT

With a depth sounder or fish finder connected, use the autopilot to follow a ledge. You may even let the autopilot steer in a controlled S-pattern while following the ledge. Set the depth you want to follow and let the autopilot take care of the steering, allowing you to concentrate on the fishing and a better catch.


Also there is a list of turn patterns that can be used while fishin

U-Turn
Zigzag
Continuous turn with adjustable turn rate
Spiral increase or decrease
Square with adjustable length on the legs
Lazy S with ajustable time between each turn


with this feature you can troll right on the depth line you want with out having to correct all the time. In lakes or the salt with feature would have lots of uses . You dont lose any thing in the way of way points and route features that are on other systems.
 
I would agree that the Simrad 25 or 26 would be near the top of the list for super features. I think by the time you get the head, rate gryo compass, box and motor, it would be in the low to mid 3K range. The 16 might be about $1000 less, but not sure if that includes the rate gyro compass andr the AP 16 does not have the contour feature.

Also the TR1 is a good pilot for fishing--as is the Raymarine. I would be interested to see how well the depth contour feature works. There is a risk in this--you are looking at what is under the transducer--actually a little delay in that--and if you are doing places like BC, Alaska or Maine with rugged coastlines, there is risk of a pinicle rock and running into it, as the depth contour aft does not reflect the rapid rise in front of the boat.
 
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