Richard,
My experiance with them has been a little bit better. The same belt you mentioned required adjustment since sometime it would jam the steering. The happened going through deception pass which doesn't mean much for most of you. For those who know, currents run up to 8 knots and while we typically hit it close to slack, this time we were beyond the normal 35 minute window. I steered with is partially engaged and immediate took it in for repair. Fortunatley for me, the N.A. repair facility is located within about 4 miles of my house. Being close by helped since I got to deal with them in person and as luck would have it, it failed prior to my annual 16 day trip and I needed a quick turn around. The two things I would add to your post is you would not want this unit in the Azores or for that matter, any application where hand steering for 3000 miles doesn't sound appealing. Or better yet, you should carry a spare. These units are designed for lighter duty and any serious cruising would warrant a hydraulic below deck unit (but they are a few k$ more expensive). For offshore, I would trust any autopilot and would opt for a mechanical wind driven system.
For the price, I think the Simrad's are ok but like any electronic device, count on service being a pain in the ass. I had my Magellan GPS fail warranting about $100 flat fee repair charge and 1 month of no unit PLUS expidite fees to get it back. When the same issue came up again (I have to say it was dropped the 2nd time), I said screw it and took it appart disregarding any voiding of the warranty. I was amazed that the wire contacts for the batteries merely ride on some electrolys nickel gold plating on the board and are not hard wired (solderered) in. After bendng the tangs, the unit worked fine. In short, they charged me outrages amounts of money for a 2 minute repair resulting from a poor design.
In short, buy good sails and hoisting the right configurations (while hopefully having wind) if your best bet for an autopilot since all those damn units seem to have reliability issues. I have heard good things about the 4000, but they are twice the price if I'm not mistaken. I do remember getting the MTBF data for all the autopilots somewhere and the old ST3000 was BY FAR the most reliable. Unfortunately, I don't like belts in the cockpit and the self contained units are appropriate for most of our applications.
regards
shun
