Hi Joe,
If you go out to the coaming you will need to buy shaft extensions. I set the bronze shaft mount into the top of the coaming instead of the seat and spanned across to a pin on the top of the tiller on a smaller boat. It worked fine. In a pinch you just lift it off the pin and turn the boat. Standby would be nice but the unit will survive just being taken off the pin. You can also hit standby and then press + or – to drive the motor directly. Hitting auto again will have assume the new heading. If you get wind or nav gear interfaced various odd combination of buttons (see manual) will have it track the wind or follow directions from a GPS. I think you will have to watch how it performs downwind in a following sea. A tiller unit can fall behind and cause problems. Phil From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joe McCary Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 9:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [IC27A] Auto Pilot I am about to purchase a Raymarine St 2000 plus auto pilot. But I have some questions. 1. The PDF manual on the Raymarine site says I should mount it on the Starboard seat and attach to the tiller, BUT I have a nice set of full seat cushions that I don’t want to cut apart. It also says I can mount it to the side of the coaming and span across to the tiller (there are spacing arms available). Has anyone done this? 2. Is the St 2000 Plus the one to buy? 3. In practicle use, how do I deactivate the unit and manually steer? Suppose I on on a collision course and need to make an immediate course change, how hard/time consuming is it to press the standby and disengage the unit form the tiller? Or is this just a non issue? 4. How well in different conditions does this work? I sail on The Chesapeake bay and we rarely get “heavy” air conditions. We often get 3’+ waves and wind 15+ knots, is this the outer limit of the unit? FYI, Amazon.com has the unit for $567. Right now… anyone k now of a better price? Joe McCary Aeolus II. #4795, West River, MD www.aeoluswestriver.net joe at photoresponse dot com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
