Forums, Electrical Systems, Navigation and Safety equipment, Tiller Pilots

Rob Milledge at 10/08/2009 22:20:40
Anyone got any advise on the best tiller pilot to fit.
Looking at either Simrad TP22 or Raymarine ST2000.
If anyone has experience of either I’d be grateful to have any comments.
Thanks

Wisdish at 11/08/2009 20:30:58
I can’t comment on the TP22 but the ST2000+ really isn’t up to the job. It is much too lightly engineered – our son when he was two managed to break it! Please see previous threads on old discussion board.

doug at 12/08/2009 13:27:19
I have the Simrad Tillerpilot 32 and feel it is probably no worse than the Raymarine offerings. I think they are all probably a bit underengineered and prone to water ingress. Having said that it works OK in moderate conditions and is good when under power. If you buy one I would make a waterproof jacket for it.

Mark Hillmann at 12/08/2009 14:16:23
Our TP10 works well when motoring, to windward (when the boat sails herself) or in calm weather. For those conditions the cheapest will do. It does not steer quickly enough in boisterous conditions.

We do have a wind vane that copes well then. Inshore it changes course with the windshifts to put you aground. You do need to hand steer occasionally.

PMaughan at 13/08/2009 21:08:06
Hi Rob,

I use a Raymarine ST4000GP which is over spec’ed for the CO32 but does handle the load and works well to windward. It’s called the X-5 grand prix these days.
Cheers

Pete

moongirl at 23/08/2009 21:23:32
Rob
I sailed Firefly back from Guernsey last weekend with the wind fairly well abaft the beam. Most of the trip was made with ‘George’ at the helm and apart from some quite extravagant swing in our course, due to the waves, it worked well (we averaged 5.8 knots). I would ask Simon Pritchard what model Firefly has and what other experiences he has had in crusing mode.

photomar at 05/11/2009 13:41:17
Hi! I have a Simrad TP32. Have only motored with it yet but it has been in rough conditions and with the pilot gaffed to the tiller. Very happy with it so far but I wonder if anybody has any tips on how to make a bracket attachment to the tiller? I have epoxied the brass fastening to the cocpit bench already, according to spec from Simrad, but when you follow this measurements you end up with quite a leverage on the tiller. Attachment must then be halfway up the curve on the tiller, pointing perhaps 40 cm backwards again, so the pin ends up in the same hight as the pilot so this is in horisontal level.. Phu! Also interested in tips on how to connect TP32 (or similar) to Garmin GPS (276C).

George Isted at 05/11/2009 14:30:10
Photomar,
you can buy the correct tiller fitting from Jeremy Rogers. See…
http://www.jeremyrogers.co.uk/contessa32/contessa32-spares.php

Hope this helps.

photomar at 11/11/2009 23:41:12
I think the tiller fitting from JR is to short? When I follow Simrads recomandations and measurments I would need a fitting thats almost 30-40 cm back again from the tiller. Maybe I should have provided a picture? I’m a bit conserned by the leverage this creates…

St Paddy at 10/02/2010 17:11:06
Hi , I had the ST2000 and it steered to Italy, Had its problems and was fixed on the chart table.
It was replaced by the ST4000 and that is very good kit. Works well. Can recomend it

Richard Ritchie at 08/03/2010 09:19:46
We have the Raymarine ST4000 which is excellent.

GNGILPIN at 25/04/2010 22:11:13
I am looking at the Raymarine SPX-5 ( not the GP ) to replace my auto tiller which failed last year. According to the Raymarine catalogue is it sufficient up to 6000kg ( contessa 32 … 4310kg in balast add 20% as suggested by Raymarine to figure out the correct tiller …..5100kg approx ) .

I want the thing to steer when there is a sea running and not just in flat water. I realise the boat has to be balanced for best results…that is taken as read.

Any thoughts please.

George Gilpin
‘KARIBA’

davidmacdonald at 26/04/2010 18:52:01
GNGILPIN
I am looking at the Raymarine SPX-5 ( not the GP ) to replace my auto tiller

We installed an SPX5 tiller pilot (not the GP) over the winter. Very good so far, but not tested in more than 22 knots of wind we had on Sunday. We went for the SPX rather than the all-in-one units partly on the back of the comments in this thread. I thought that the GP was more than we needed as the C32 is well within the specs of the standard version, but I guess that downwind in a rough sea more power will always be a good thing.

I am also confused by the specs though, the Raymarine website quotes 84kg of thrust for both the standard and GP versions which presumably can’t be right as the thrust is, I think, the only difference.

David

George Isted at 26/04/2010 20:49:15

Does the GP version have a more advanced Gyro-stabilised course computer. I believe that may the difference?

For what it’s worth I have an ST2000+ and a Windpilot Pacific.

davidmacdonald at 27/04/2010 19:21:25
George Isted

Does the GP version have a more advanced Gyro-stabilised course computer. I believe that may the difference?


The rate gyro is now part of the SPX computer so is the same for both the standard SPX5 and the GP version. I think previously it was an option on the S1 (I think that’s what the SPX5’s precurser was called) but standard on the more powerful S1G.

GNGILPIN at 16/08/2010 20:34:24
I purchased an SPX-5 GP in June 2010 but cannot comment on its suitability for a contessa 32 as it has not functioned correctly from the moment it was installed ( to the letter of the instructions ) in June. It has been returned to Raymarine for their consideration ( three weeks ago this week ). The autotiller fails to ‘auto learn’ and the compass takes minutes not seconds to change heading….. Anyone else had this experience?

George Isted at 23/04/2013 10:03:20
Hi All, Reviving an old thread here…. The biggest problem I find with the ST2000 A/P is that due to the shape of the tiller you have to fit the pin (for the A/P arm to clip on to) further forward than the recommended distance from the rudder stock, this results in limiting the tiller movement and the pilot regularly hitting it’s end stops. The only answer appears to be making a larger (higher) bracket for the fixing pin and then fit this lower and aft of its present position (that is in line with the seat top). If anyone can offer advice or pictures of their autopilot arm installation that solved this I would appreciate it. I will most likely go out and buy the larger SPX5 pilot as the ST is a little underrated for a Co32, but I would like to solve the problem above first so the tiller has a full range of movement (or at least pushing the tiller over as far as the seat sides). All the best

Tazling at 16/07/2013 21:19:03
Just my $0.02 having a little experience with tiller and wheel pilots on 30-foot class sloops, various…

I sail solo, mostly low-stress coastal cruising, and find the autopilot is most useful under two circs:

1) raising or lowering the main under way (I have roller furling on the genny). If you are shorthanded it’s nice to have “Mike” (as we call ‘em around here) steer up into the wind for you. On some boats I have used the auto-tack feature, but the CO32 is so easy to singlehand that I don’t feel a need for it with this one.

2) long boring motoring spells (yaaaawn) in flat calm

Outside those two scenarios I doubt I would use a cheapie (and they all are cheapies until you go for below-decks ram and all that jazz) while under sail. My CO32 is so sweet-natured on the wind — from close hauled to beam reach — that I can just trim the sails, lash the helm slightly to weather, and go take a walk; I can be gone for minutes. No problem, she just keeps loping along (which makes me very careful about “one hand for the ship”!). So no real need for autopilot. Off the wind, with squirrelly seas, I have not found most of the smaller units to steer all that well really; they claim they “learn” and compensate for sea state etc, but in my experience there is no real substitute for a knowledgeable hand on the helm, anticipating the next move. Wing-n-wing (w/o pole and preventer), fuhgeddaboudit… hand steering becomes a delicate art.

My conclusion: I’ll be buying a low-cost unit — TP22 most likely - for the light-duty uses listed above. If I have to reach or run in any sea state I’ll be hand steering. If I were planning to go offshore I would re-install the big Monitor vane that came with the boat :) rather than shell out for the “pro grade” serious below-decks autopilot mechanism. That’s just one person’s opinion of course: some folks have crossed oceans using a series of Simrad tillerpilots (bringing spares ’cos they knew they would use ’em up). YMMV.

admin at 07/08/2013 10:49:45
For info, it appears that Raymarine have killed off the SPX-5 tillerpilot and this will be replaced by a new system to be launched in the next month or so. I’m told that the model suitable for the Co32 is the entry level EV100, looks like a completely new course computer, new style of compass/yaw/heel/etc sensor. looks good on paper at least, no idea on price.