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Wheel Pilot

David Grimm

E38-200
My Simrad wp-32 wheel pilot grenaded this past weekend. It appears that the plastic outter wheel guide came unglued from the aluminum housing. I could probably put in a new belt and glue it back together but its old and that ring is very brittle and worn paper thin. Being I plan to do an off shore passage next June I assume just replace it with the only option out there the squeeky Ray Marine ev-100. However I just got done building my new binnacle nav box and the P70 control head would have to replace my tri data or my anemometer. My wp-32 worked great and would follow my set chart on the Garmin perfectly. I never used it to tack or gybe. I just do that by hand. Any suggestions?
 

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David Grimm

E38-200
Thanks Christian, I'll go with the EV-100. I'll replace the old tri data with the P70. I'll put the in hull transducer in the garmin for depth and temp and remove the through hull ray marine depth/temp and water speed sensors and fill the holes. Less holes is always better! Do you have a below deck auto pilot as well as the sailomat and ev100?

Do you think the heading sensor can be located in the aft cabin?

Dave
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
It's either/or wind vane/autopilot, seems to me. A wind vane doesn't work for motoring so you need a wheel pilot, too.

I begin to think that a modern autopilot is most simple, and cost effective, given the price of a Monitor vane. Then you don;t need a wheel pilot at all.

But you do need batteries, solar, and a big alternator.
 
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David Grimm

E38-200
Christian, You would go with just an autopilot? No backup? I guess a wheelpilot would be a little redundant but what if the autopilot fails? Maybe some extra parts that are subject to wear or known failures.

How does your monitor vane keep the boat on track if there is a steady perpendicular current? I watched your video a number of times. I'm a little hesitant on purchasing the monitor being the amount of practice it takes to master using it. The Hudson River is no place to practice. Its 70 miles to the ocean and once I'm there its game time!
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Yes, I would trust an autopilot, once I installed it and understood it and had a few spare parts.

Self steering is a luxury, even for a singlehander. You can muddle through without it.

Wind vanes are not really practical for family cruising--too much fiddling when lots of course and wind changes.

And a Monitor puts a trapeze act on the transom (there are alternatives). Sailomat is sorta going out of business, I think. I liked being able to take it off and put it on in half an hour.
 
L

Leslie Newman

Guest
I installed the EV-100. It works very well and a plus the electronic compass part of that system puts the heading data onto my NMEA 2000 bus which gets used by my Garmin and keeps the radar happy with heading data.
 
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