It would be nice if Raymarine allowed you to specify your own tacking angle, as 90-degrees is a little optimistic for my Sadler 34 with her cruising Dacron sails! I made good use of this function sailing through the Raz de Sein off west Brittany, and found it answered very well as a helmsman while I grappled with the jibsheets. After that, the system learns very quickly, thanks to a clever algorithm, and the nine sensors in the digital compass.įunctionality is similar, in that the pilot control head allows you to adjust course up and down in 1-degree and 10-degree increments or, but pressing both buttons at once, tack through 90 degrees. The exceptions are the drive arm, which needs to be separately wired with sufficiently heavy cable (6mm2 for my short run) to the ACU, and the ACU itself, which needs the same heavy cable in from the battery to supply the 7A that the unit needs in bad weather.Ĭalibration was much simpler than expected – just a case of entering a few variables to describe the boat and the sort of response I wanted from the autohelm (cruising, long-distance cruising or racing). This allows them to calculate the difference between heading and course over the ground, which makes it possible to estimate leeway and tidal vectors, which can be handy.Īs they use the NMEA 2000 protocol, the different elements of the Raymarine Evolution system can be positioned anywhere and simply plug into the backbone of the network using the usual cables and T-pieces. Splitting out the functions has another benefit, which is that heading, roll and pitch data from the sensor core feed into the NMEA 2000 network to supply chartplotters and other units. And with these functions taken off-board, the tiller arm itself is much sleeker – a neat black cylinder. Whereas the brains and the controls for the old unit all lived in the chunky, grey tillerpilot housing, the new system separates out controls, drive unit, central processor (ACU-100) and fluxgate compass. Straight out of the box, there’s a huge difference between the old ST 2000 and the Raymarine Evolution. I highly recommend Dan – I’d much rather repair gear than replace it! NOTE: I have no connection to him other than as an extremely satisfied customer.As part of the refurbishment of my boat’s creaking electronics, I replaced my old ST 2000+ tiller pilot for the new Raymarine Evolution pilot system. Be sure to tell him brand, model and the type of problem that you’re having. He told me, “ I buy, sell, repair mostly autopilots, some instruments, Raymarine/Autohelm/Raytheon only.” He has great feedback from satisfied customers on eBay ( see it here – 5 stars in every category and all positive reviews - obviously part of why I felt comfortable sending our gear off to him).ĭan doesn’t always have “for sale” listings on eBay but if you send him an email, you can work something out. (These prices are as of October 2016.)ĭan gave me permission to share his info here on The Boat Galley.
![autohelm 2000 auto pilot autohelm 2000 auto pilot](http://users.tpg.com.au/derekwtpg/autopilot/sca3.jpg)
Autohelm 2000 auto pilot plus#
We’ll be taking ours down as part of our rigging project and will send it off to him – he says if it’s the bearings, it’s $99 plus shipping if it needs other work, he’ll let us know. A couple of days later, I had the display back and it works beautifully!ĭan and I emailed back and forth a few more times as we also have a Raymarine wind instrument that does not work properly – we think it needs new bearings, but again the Raymarine dealers can’t repair it (but they’ll sell me a new one for $350). I plugged that into the eBay search bar, bought it and paid. He then set up a special eBay “item” for the work and gave me the item number.
![autohelm 2000 auto pilot autohelm 2000 auto pilot](https://d2j6dbq0eux0bg.cloudfront.net/images/10876101/1099657008.jpg)
and told me that he’d discovered that the buttons weren’t working well, so he’d replaced them too – free. I sent Dan our display and a couple of days later he sent me a picture of it with the new LCD. I contacted the man and found out that his name is Dan Gerhardt. Cost? $139 plus shipping both ways (it totalled about $160 with postage).
Autohelm 2000 auto pilot install#
eBay had the answer: a guy sold replacement LCD displays and, if you didn’t want to attempt the very fine soldering to install it, you could send him your display and he’d install it for free. But I can sell you a new display that will work with your existing wiring.” Price? Generally over $600 (even at Defender on their boat show sale, the display was almost $500).
![autohelm 2000 auto pilot autohelm 2000 auto pilot](https://maxmarineelectronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jeff927A-3.jpg)
We contacted several Raymarine dealers and the answer was the same “Sorry, but we don’t repair those.
Autohelm 2000 auto pilot free#
Overwhelmed with all there is to learn as you're starting to cruise? Help is here: Overcoming the First-Year Learning Curve (a free mini-course from The Boat Galley).