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7 Best Sailboat Autopilot Systems

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

June 15, 2022

Essential in increasing efficiency, safety, and convenience, marine autopilots are a sailor's best friend when out there on the water. A properly operating sailboat autopilot will keep your sailboat on a selected course even in strong currents and winds and that why you need to go for the best sailboat autopilot.

Steering a sailboat is always fun. And even though many sailors are so good at it, some circumstances can make steering a boat on a straight line or the right course almost impossible. The tides, winds, and the complex hull-bottom designs can throw your sailboat off route and the adjustments that you have to make to return to course can be your voyage killers. Even if you have a crew that regularly sails with you, having an autopilot can help you stay on course and that's exactly why you need the best sailboat autopilot.

In the simplest term possible, an autopilot is an extra pair of hands that can help you in steering your sailboat on the right course. It is a self-steering device for powerboats or sailboats and even the most basic autopilot can help in holding your vessel on a pre-set compass course. Some advanced autopilots can even gather data from your boat and determine whether or not the boat is capable of handling the task in hand.

So whether you have a mechanically-steered boat or a tiller-steered sailboat, an autopilot is of great importance for both you and your boat. And it doesn't matter whether you want to explore your nearest lake for a day or want to sail to the Caribbean on your sailboat, it will make your job a lot easier, efficient, and safer. This is why we've put together this article to help you find the best sailboat autopilot. Read on and find which is best for you and your sailboat.

Table of contents

How to Choose the Best Sailboat Autopilot for Your Vessel

When it comes to choosing the best sailboat autopilot for your vessel, the easiest thing to do would be to go for an autopilot that can steer your sailboat in calm seas. However, this is not advisable since you want an autopilot that works perfectly under very demanding sea conditions. With that in mind, here are the most important things to consider when looking at the best sailboat autopilot for you. 

Speed of Helm Adjustment

The best way to measure the speed on an autopilot that's appropriate for your boat is by looking at the number of degrees per second of helm correction. As such a 40-feet boat requires 10 degrees per second, a 25-feet boat requires 15 degrees per second, and a 70-feet boat requires 5 degrees per second. 

An above-deck or below-deck Autopilot

Do you want an autopilot that's designed to be used above the deck or below the deck? Well, the most important thing is to choose an autopilot that matches the displacement of your boat. More importantly, above-deck autopilots are ideal if you have a smaller boat while below-deck autopilot is ideal if you have a larger boat.

The Steering System

What type of steering system does your boat have? It's important to understand whether your boat has rotary drives, linear drive, or hydraulic drives. 

Control Interfaces

You should choose what's perfect for you as far as the control interface is concerned because this is one of the most crucial parts of an autopilot. The best features to consider include ease of use, waterproof, intuitive display, backlit options, and compatibility with SimNet, SeaTalk, and NMEA 2000.

7 Best Sailboat Autopilots

Here are the 7 best sailboat autopilots.

Raymarine ST1000 Plus Tiller Pilot

(Best for Tiller-steered Sailboats)

The Raymarine ST100 Plus Tiller Pilot is a classic tiller pilot that's one of the best accessories for your sailboat and your everyday sailing escapades. It's designed in such a way that it can accept NMEA data while still offering accurate navigation thanks to its incredibly intelligent software.

This autopilot is designed with a backlit LCD to help you see your navigational data, locked course, and other important information that can make your sailing safer and much better. The fact that the backlit LCD works perfectly in low-light conditions is an added plus.

That's not all; the ST1000 comes with an AutoTack feature that works like an extra hand when you're engaged in other responsibilities. For example, it can tack the sailboat for you when you adjust the sails. Better still, this autopilot is fully-fitted with everything that you need to install it on your sailboat and use it.

• ‍ It's easy to use thanks to the simple six-button keypad
• It's perfect when sailing in the calm sea as well as in stormy conditions
• It is waterproof so you don't have to worry about it getting damaged
• Its intelligent software minimizes battery usage thereby prolonging its battery life
• Perfect for tiller-steered sailboats
• ‍ The 2-year warranty could be improved
• It's a bit heavier

Garmin Ghc 20 Marine Autopilot Helm Control

(Best for Night Sailing)

If you're planning to go on a voyage, chances are you'll find yourself sailing overnight. With that in mind, you should go for an autopilot that works perfectly both during the day and at night. The Garmin Ghc 20 Marine Autopilot Helm Control is your best sailboat autopilot for these types of adventure.

This amazing autopilot is designed with a 4-inch display that can improve your nighttime readability. This display is glass-bonded and comes with an anti-glare lens that is essential in preventing fog and glare in sunny conditions. This is crucial in helping you maintain control in all conditions, both during the day and at night.

This autopilot also provides a 170-degree viewing angle. This is essential in viewing the display at almost any angle. So whether you're adjusting the sails up on the deck or grabbing an extra sheet below the deck, you can be able to look at the display and see what's going on. So whether a sailing vessel or a powerboat, this autopilot is easy to use thanks to its five-button control. 

• ‍ The five-button control makes it easy to use
• Comes with a bright 4-inch display
• The display works in all conditions thanks to its glass-bonded, anti-glare lens
• The display offers optimal view both during the day and at night
• It's compatible with other Garmin products
• ‍ Only good for sailboat under 40 feet in length
• The battery life should be improved

Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot

(Best for 32-feet or less Sailboat)

For many lone sailors, going with a sailboat that measures 32-feet or less in length is always ideal. Under such scenarios, it's always best to go with a sailboat autopilot that's perfect for such types of boats, and the Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot can be a superb option for you. This autopilot is so perfect as it brings to the table a combination of advanced technological software and simplicity.

Its five-button display makes it user-friendly, easy to use, and perfect in controlling your sailboat accordingly. This autopilot has a low-power draw, which means that your battery will last longer even when used for prolonged periods. This is an excellent autopilot that's designed with the sailor in mind as it goes about its business quietly so that you can enjoy your sailing adventures without noise and interruption from a humming autopilot.

• ‍ One of the quietest sailboat autopilots
• The battery life is excellent
• It's designed with one of the most advanced software
• It's waterproof to protect it from spray and elements
• It offers precision steering and reading in all types of weather conditions
• It's easy to use and control
• ‍ Not ideal for big boats

Raymarine M81131 12 Volt Type 2 Autopilot Linear Drive

(Best for Seasonal Cruising)

For those of us who love cruising during winter when other sailors are drinking hot coffee from the comfort of their abodes, the Raymarine M81131 is the right sailboat autopilot for you. Well, this autopilot can be an ideal option if your sailboat is large enough to have a full motor system.

This autopilot is one of the most powerful in the marine industry and has an incredible electromagnetic fail-safe clutch. This autopilot is also compatible with other devices such as NMEA 2000 ABD SeaTalk navigation data. In terms of precision navigation, this autopilot will never disappoint you in any weather condition.

So whether you're looking to go ice-fishing or sailing the oceans during winter, this is your go-to autopilot.

• ‍ Offers optimal sailing experience and navigation precision
• It's very quiet
• It offers high performance with minimal battery usage
• It's great for adverse winter conditions 
• ‍ It's expensive

Furuno Navpilot 711C Autopilot System

(Best for Accuracy)

If you're looking for the best sailboat autopilot that will take your navigation to the next level in terms of accuracy, look no further than the Furuno Navpilot 711C. This is an autopilot that enhances your boat's precision as far as staying on course is concerned. This is because the autopilot is designed with a self-learning software program that offers step by step calculations of your navigation and course.

This autopilot also offers real-time dynamic adjustments so that you can steer your sailboat more accurately. Thanks to this self-learning algorithm also offers great power application that significantly reduces the manual helm effort when maneuvering various situations. Its colored graphic display is of great benefit as you can easily read the information even in low-light conditions. So it doesn't matter whether you're sailing at night or during the day, this autopilot will serve you right in any condition. 

• ‍ It's great for power and fuel efficiency
• The display is intuitive
• It's easy to set up and use
• Its power assist is essential in reducing steering system complexity
• Great for both outboard and inboard motors
• ‍ Quite expensive

Si-Tex SP120 Autopilot with Virtual Feedback

(The Most Affordable Autopilot)

If you're on a budget and looking for one of the most affordable yet reliable sailboat autopilots, look no further than the Si-Tex SP120 Autopilot. This is a perfect high-performance sailboat autopilot that can be great for small to medium-sized powerboats and sailboats.

One of the most important features that this autopilot brings to the table is the ability to offer virtual feedback. This is great in eliminating the manual rudder feedback and thereby enhances your sailboat's performance. Its splash-proof 4.3-inch LCD offers one of the best transflective displays in the marine industry. The 4-button operation makes it a lot easier to use and provides the information you need to steer your sailboat safely and perfectly.

This autopilot can be great for you if you have a small or medium-sized sailboat thanks to its ease of use. The fact that it's one of the most affordable sailboat autopilots makes it highly popular with sailors who are on a budget.

• ‍ It's simple to install and use
• The virtual feedback is great
• The display is one of the best in the game
• It's quite affordable
• ‍ It's not ideal for big boats

Garmin Reactor 40 Kicker Autopilot

(Best for Outboard Motor Boats)

If you have a motorboat that has a single-engine outboard, The Garmin Reactor 40 Kicker Autopilot can be an ideal option. This is a great autopilot that mitigates heading error and unnecessary rudder movement while offering more flexible mounting, which is essential in offering a more comfortable sailing even in the roughest of weather conditions.

This autopilot can be easily fine-tuned thanks to its throttle settings with a touch of a button. Of course, this can be useful especially when the seas are rough and you're trying to remain on course. This autopilot is also waterproof to ensure that it doesn't get damaged with spray or other elements.

With this autopilot, you're guaranteed to enjoy an awesome sailing trip even when going against the wind or when sailing in rough conditions. 

• ‍ Easy to install and use
• It's waterproof
• It's beautifully designed
• It comes with a floating handheld remote control
• It's great for maintaining heading hold and route.
• ‍ It's only ideal for motorboats with up to 20 horsepower
• It's relatively expensive

As you can see, there are plenty of options when it comes to choosing an ideal sailboat autopilot for you. The best thing about the above-described sailboat autopilots is that they're among the best and you can find one that perfectly suits your unique needs and boats. Of course, most of them are quite expensive but they will advance the way you sail and make your sailing adventures even more enjoyable. We hope that you'll find the perfect sailboat autopilot for you.

Until next time, happy sailing!

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I've personally had thousands of questions about sailing and sailboats over the years. As I learn and experience sailing, and the community, I share the answers that work and make sense to me, here on Life of Sailing.

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New Breed of Classic Sailing Yachts Automate the Crew

The latest pleasure boats allow sailors to take to the water with a crew of just one, with sails that can move at the touch of a button.

The Morris M-Series, for example, is a line of luxury yachts built in Maine, all of which get automated sail control. The 52-foot M52 has all the hallmarks of a high-end pleasure boat: a laid teak deck, stainless steel brightwork and an interior trimmed in solid cherry. But it doesn't require an entire crew to run.

In fact, the M52 automates the majority of sail handling, allowing a single person to go for a cruise and never leave the helm, controlling the sails from a single user interface. All lines are hidden under deck, and a FurlFinder system from Holmatro uses hydraulics to automatically move the boom to the proper angle for furling. Morris says that a comparable boat would require two or three crew, but the M52 needs only one person to sail.

Automated sail handling first appeared back in 1902, on the German-flagged Preussen . The five-masted ship used a steam engine to partially control whether sails were furled or unfurled, allowing the ship to sail with a crew a fraction of the size of its contemporaries.

Since then, various manufacturers have automated part or all of the sailing process. It's an appealing prospect: eliminate the expense and hassle of having a full crew on board, while still enjoying sailing. It's especially attractive to those who would otherwise use a powered boat for convenience, but want to find that tranquility Christopher Cross was singing about.

It's not a panacea, though. Sailing forums are awash with anecdotes about first-time sailors who try a tricky cruise and end up in over their heads without the proper knowledge. Also, many automated systems lack the precision necessary to deal with sailing upwind into the strongest winds.

For a simple cruise, however, or for retirees who finally have the money and time to sail but lack the physical strength, automated sail handling can be the best way of getting on the water. Just be expected to pay: The M52's starting price is north of $1.3 million.

Photos: Morris Yachts

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6 Best Sailboat Autopilot Systems

Hand steering a sailboat is so much fun – until it isn’t. In actuality, it’s tiring work that requires more concentration than we can give it for very long. Racing sailboats switch helmspersons regularly, and offshore passagemakers never rely solely on hand steering. In fact, a breakdown of automatic steering is a big problem for a short-handed vessel offshore.

Sailboat autopilot come to our rescue again and again. These crewmembers don’t need sleep, food, or water, and they never complain much. So let’s take a moment to appreciate these wonders of modern technology, and credit them with what they make possible. Here’s a look at the inner workings of Otto the Pilot, including his care and feeding.

Table of Contents

What is a sailboat auto pilot how does it work, what can an autopilot do, what can’t an autopilot do, mechanical windvane, electrical sailboat autopilots, control head, computer, “black box,” or “core pack”, rudder angle sensor, other input sensors, size and displacement of your vessel, types of drive unit, functionality and integration with mfd, small boat tiller pilots, below deck autopilots, sailboat autopilot faqs, navco/b&g, simrad, lowrance.

At the most basic level, the purpose of an autopilot is to steer the boat so you don’t have to. Steering a boat is like steering a car–every bend and curve in even a straight road will set the vehicle on a new course. So while sailing, every wave will wiggle the boat around. What’s more, the boat’s designed-in weather helm tendencies will cause it to want to head up into the wind. So steering a sailboat requires constant attention and work. 

After about 30 minutes, even the best helmsmen will start to waiver. An autopilot relieves you of some of this workload. It allows you to safely stand watch at the helm for hours at a time because you don’t have to worry about every bump, wave, and wind gust blowing you off course.

Do Boats Have Autopilot?

Of course, not every boat has an autopilot. It likely doesn’t need one if the boat is designed for day sailing. Half the fun of day sailing lies in the handling of the boat–the actual sailing part! Having an autopilot might be handy, but it’s hardly a necessity.

But boats that are built to travel for hours, days, or weeks at a time need an autopilot of some sort. There are many types of autopilots out there, even some mechanical ones that require no electricity . They vary in functionality, but their basic purpose is to relieve the helmsperson of some of the work. 

With that in mind, all autopilots can perform some basic functions. No matter how basic they are, they can all hold the boat’s course and points of sale in a relatively straight line. How they accomplish this depends on their complexity and what sort of sensors or inputs the autopilot has to understand the world around it.

Advanced modern autopilots usually have three modes you can select from. They can hold a compass heading, a bearing off of the wind, or hold a GPS course to the next waypoint. 

As amazing as autopilot is and as much work as they can do for us, they have some very big limits. What can’t an autopilot do? It can never replace an able helmsperson exercising good seamanship.

What does that mean? First and foremost, it is the legal responsibility of every vessel operator to maintain a continuous lookout. This is one of the most fundamental regulations in the COLREGS – the international laws set to prevent collisions at sea. 

In other words, only a human standing watch and looking out for hazards can see and avoid those hazards. An autopilot has no sensors to understand the world around it in that way–it can’t see other ships, boats, landmasses, rocks, or markers. So if it’s holding its course and something is ahead of it, it will run right into whatever lies in its way.

Many new sailors want to know if they can sleep while the autopilot drives the boat. The autopilot will certainly keep driving the boat–but it will keep driving it forever–onto the beach, into the side of a container ship, or straight into a metal day beacon.  

Another thing that autopilots don’t know is when to stop. They keep going until the helmsman switches them into “standby” mode. Here’s a horror story that I’ve heard a few times–it’s the middle of the night, and the boat is on autopilot. The skipper needs to pee, so he walks to the stern rail and falls off. His wife awakes two hours later for her watch, only to find an empty boat that’s still steering a perfect course away from her dear darling husband. 

Now, ladies, before you get any ideas, this is supposed to be an illustrative and cautionary tale about autopilots, not marriages.

Types of Autopilot

It’s impossible to understand the role and purpose of modern autopilots without first discussing the tried and true mechanical windvane. 

The windvane is a simple item mounted to the back of the boat. Above the water is a windvane that swings to point into the wind. Through a series of linkages, it is attached to a rudder below the water–either its own rudder or attached to the boat’s rudder.

The skipper uses a line to select the direction off of the wind – using the windvane – that they wish to steer. The windvane then corrects for any changes by moving its rudder left or right. 

The windvane is pretty simple in theory and ultra-reliable. Before the days of solar and wind generators , the fact that they used no electrical power was their biggest selling point. They’re still popular with offshore sailors today, mostly because of their reliability and simplicity. While a lightning strike could take out every electrical component on your boat, it wouldn’t hurt a windvane. 

For all its plusses, the windvane has some limitations. It only works when sailing in steady winds–if you’re trying to hold your course while motoring on a windless day, it won’t do much. They are also large and bulky, mounted on the stern of the boat in a place where most coastal sailors want to have their dinghy or a nice swim step.

Electric autopilots are a technology borrowed from the powerboat world. There’s fundamentally no difference between a sailboat autopilot and one built for a powerboat.  

Above-Deck or Cockpit Autopilots

An above-deck autopilot has all of its components mounted at the helm. It’s a simple and less expensive solution popular with smaller coastal cruising boats. 

For a basic autopilot like this, an electric mechanism will turn your steering wheel or tiller. It works fine on smaller boats and in calm conditions. However, the drive units are not powerful enough to move a big boat or a boat in very rough conditions . These units are commonly called wheel pilot and tiller pilot systems.

Below-Deck or Inboard Autopilot System

The best solution, albeit the more expensive and complicated one, is the below-deck autopilot. The rudder is turned by a series of servo motors or hydraulics below decks.

The biggest advantage of most of these systems is that the autopilot usually has its own attachment to the rudder post. In the event of a steering failure, the autopilot will often still control the boat just fine.

Another advantage is that the autopilot drive motor can be sized correctly for the vessel. Hydraulic rams that produce incredible force can be mounted. These can control any vessel in any sea condition if sized correctly.

Sail Boat Auto Pilot Components

Today’s autopilots are complex electronic systems built of several components that work together to get the job done. Most advanced autopilots consist of the following parts.

• Control head
• Electronic flux-gate compass
• Black box computer or core pack
• Rudder position and other sensors

There must be some controls for the helmsperson to manipulate the helm of the boat . This is usually in the form of an instrument-sized control head that monitors and controls the autopilot system. 

The autopilot computer cannot know the compass course of the boat without having an electronic flux-gate compass. It is usually mounted somewhere in the boat far from other electromechanical systems, like a locker in the stateroom. 

The autopilot’s processor will have a central black box that receives input from its various sensors. It also directly controls the drive motor, telling it when to come on and which direction to steer with how much force.

The drive unit mounts to the rudder post of the boat. It is generally preferred that the drive attach directly to the post so that if anything on the regular steering system breaks, the autopilot will still function. In the case of an above-deck autopilot, the drive unit is usually a simple electric motor or a magnetic servo mounted to the wheel.

There are a few methods of below-deck drive that can be matched to the vessel’s existing steering system. For example, powerboats with outboards often have hydraulic steering installed. In addition, there are autopilot drive systems that you can install in line with this existing system. 

The most common type of drive on sailboats is the linear ram drive. This is a rod that pushes straight in or out. When mounted to an arm on the rudder shaft, it can turn the rudder through its full range of motion.

The ram can be powered by either an electric motor of the sailboat and gears or hydraulics. 

A position sensor is mounted on the rudder shaft to ensure that the autopilot knows the rudder’s angle. It operates an indicator on the control head. But more importantly, it helps calibrate the system to know where the center is and how much deflection is given to each side. 

The complexity of your autopilot is also dependent on how many other electronics are networked into the autopilot computer. Most marine networks now work on the NMEA2000 standard. If that’s the case, and your autopilot talks to your other instruments, you’ll likely get a few extra benefits. 

If you have an electronic wind instrument onboard, your autopilot will be able to hold a true wind angle. This is a great way to run a cruising boat and like using an old-school windvane. 

For example, you might be running a course to your destination and find it sailing downwind . Instead of risking an accidental jibe with your boat , you set up a course with the wind 160 degrees to starboard. The autopilot will hold that wind angle for you, even if the wind shifts slightly. Then, you can determine when, where, and if you need to jibe.

If your autopilot “talks” to your MFD (multi-function display), you can get even more options. If you plot a course directly to a waypoint, your autopilot can track the sailboat on that line using the “Navigation” function. Remember that it won’t know what to do when you get there, so it will likely deactivate itself. It’s just holding that pre set compass course.

Alternatively, you could program an entire route into your GPS. This series of waypoints, all located in safe water, guides you from departure to destination. Most GPS systems will communicate the turns in the route to the autopilot, allowing it to follow that pre-programmed route without you touching it. 

Picking the Best Sailboat Autopilot

Picking an autopilot for your boat is one of those big undertakings that can quickly balloon out of your control. 

Here’s my own experience installing an autopilot from scratch. I share it here not as a how-to guide but as a cautionary tale into exactly how involved a project that this can become. 

Our sailboat came with a home-built above-deck autopilot. It functioned acceptably in calm waters, but its belt drive was easily overpowered in following seas. It was also something of a hassle to activate and deactivate. So in replacing our GPS and other electronics, we knew we wanted to upgrade to something more able to handle offshore weather.

We settled on B&G electronics for our boat. The existing autopilot had a newer Raymarine control head, compass, and computer, which I hoped to reuse. I wanted to get a linear drive unit to mount below decks. 

While I could get a Raymarine linear drive that would communicate with the Raymarine computer I owned, I could not get one big enough for my boat. So a new black box was required. 

I could not find a hydraulic drive unit that would fit the dimensions of our boat. There wasn’t much space near the rudder, and most hydraulic units were big. So I settled for an electric linear drive from Raymarine, but the most powerful one. 

I then discovered there was no easy way to mount the drive unit. My rudder post did not have an arm for it, so I would have to have that built custom. Plus, there were no flat spaces in the compartment nearby where the drive could be bolted on. 

Thankfully I could mount the Raymarine linear drive at any angle. I had to build angled blocks out of solid wood, allowing the drive motor to be mounted on its side and at a 30-degree angle to the rudder post. I then had a custom-made arm built by Edson Marine with a 30-degree offset, a $600 unexpected expense. This strange and complicated arrangement was the only way I could get the drive to give full deflection of the rudder within its designed mounting limits. 

So, what began as a $1,200 project for a new drive unit ballooned into a complete replacement project with all electronics costing over $4,000, plus another $1,000 in miscellaneous parts and modifications. This is for a 38-foot sailboat and doing all the work myself. The project would have easily cost $10,000 or more had I had a boatyard do the labor. 

How did I choose which autopilot would be best? Well, there aren’t actually that many choices. While many companies make hydraulic rams, only Raymarine had electric linear drives. I already had B&G electronics, so it only made sense to buy the same for maximum compatibility. 

In the end, the system works flawlessly, and I am very happy. But it goes in the folder of boat projects I hope never to do again. So, from one sailor to another, my advice is to buy a boat that is already set up the way you like it! Most newer boats come from the factory set-up for a below-deck autopilot, so all you should ever have to do is replace the components.

The most important factor in choosing your autopilot is to size it correctly according to the boat’s displacement. This will ensure that the unit has enough power to move the rudder when it’s underway. The force needed to move the rudder is proportional to the size of the rudder and the speed at which the vessel is moving. 

For whatever type of drive unit you choose, you will be given some operating limits of what it can and cannot do. For example, Raymarine makes three versions of their mechanical linear drive. Type 1 is for boats up to 24,000 lbs, Type 2S for up to 33,000 lbs, and Type 2L for vessels up to 44,000 lbs. The arms have a stroke of 12 (S model) or 16 (L model) inches, which must accommodate the movement of your rudder from stop to stop. Finally, the physical dimensions of the drive need to fit in the space provided.

Raymarine makes about the most complete line of autopilot drives on the market today. Currently, Raymarine has five types.

• Hydraulic pumps for hydraulic steering 
• Hydraulic linear arms
• Mechanical linear arms
• Mechanical rotary motors for chain and sprocket drives
• Sterndrive actuators for boats with power-assisted steering

The drive unit you choose will be part of your overall system design. It depends on how your steering system works and how and where you’re going to plug in the autopilot drive.

If you’re installing new electronics with your autopilot, getting a unit that matches the rest of your navigation technology makes sense. If you have Garmin, stick with Garmin; likewise, Raymarine or B&G. All make good products. The benefits of having them work together flawlessly are greater than any benefit you’ll get from mixing and matching different brands.

For example, my B&G autopilot allows me to control the autopilot directly from my MFD instead of having a separate control head. This saved me some money and space at the helm since a control head would be another $500 and another instrument face to mount. It also means that I can use the big touch screen and menu system to set up the autopilot and calibrate it.

Sailboat Autopilot Reviews

When shopping for an autopilot, you may find it difficult to shop online. More often than not, suppliers will have one component you need but not another. No one keeps all of these parts in stock and available for immediate shipment. You’ll wind up piecing together your autopilot system with parts from several sources. 

More often than not, what owners need is to replace one component. For example, maybe the drive unit went bad, or their control head display died. In these cases, simply replace the same part number from whoever has the part.

If you’re replacing the entire system or all of your electronics, it may be easiest to work directly through the manufacturer or their local distributor. However, if you’re willing to shop around, you might be able to find kits and individual components through Amazon, West Marine, Defender, or other marine stores. 

Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot

The TP10 is an entry-level, easy-to-use autopilot built for boats with tillers up to 32 feet long. It mounts simply in the cockpit and has easy controls. Best of all, it’s waterproof.

• Simrad TP10 Tiller Pilot

Prices pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on:

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.

Raymarine ST2000 Plus Tiller Pilot

Raymarine makes a similar line of tiller pilots. This model, A12005, is for vessels weighing up to 10,000 pounds. 

• Add custom text here

Raymarine Pilot EV-400 Autopilot (No Drive Included)

For below-deck mounted systems, Raymarine makes two levels of the computer system–the EV-200 or EV-400. This is the 400, which is big boat approved and will drive their largest Type 3 mechanical or hydraulic drives. Match the correct drive unit to the size and configuration of your vessel. 

This kit also comes with the P70R, a rotary dialed controller for the helmsperson. The knob is a great feature that makes turning the boat in small increments a lot easier. 

• Precision monitoring of heading, pitch, roll, and yaw allowing the Autopilot to Evolve Instantly as Sea conditions and vessel dynamics change

Garmin Reactor 40 Corepack for Mechanical or Retrofit Autopilots

Garmin autopilot systems are based around the Reactor 40 “core pack.” Unfortunately, most of Garmin’s autopilot kits available online are designed for modern boats or those with hydraulic steerings systems. To piece together a kit for a classic sailboat with cable or Edson steering, start with this retrofit core pack directly from Garmin.

This kit includes: 

• Course computer unit
• GHC20 control head
• Electronic control unit (ECU)
• Cables and NMEA2000 connectors

B&G (Simrad) NAC-3 Core Pack and Compass

This kit includes the main computer for the Simrad family of autopilots. You can couple this with any type of drive unit. All controls for the autopilot are accomplished through the B&G Zeus or Vulcan multi-function display. If you want a dedicated control panel, they sell that as well. You may also need a rudder position sensor to make the system work.

Furuno NAVPILOT300

This is an all-in-one solution that requires fewer parts. You’ll still need a drive unit and a heading sensor to make a complete system. 

Top Brands of Sailboat Auto Pilot

As mentioned above, the big names in sailboat instruments all offer autopilot packages. If you’re only replacing the autopilot electronics, keeping everything the same brand makes sense. However, if you’re replacing everything, you have bigger choices to make. 

Garmin applies the lessons they learned by making several generations of aircraft autopilots. Their systems integrate much more than a simple flux-gate compass–their autopilots are built with a full-fledged AHRS (Attitude Heading Reference System).

Using this Autopilot Compatibility Guide , you can figure out which Garmin autopilot is right for you.

Navco is the parent company of three different electronics brands–B&G, Simrad, and Lowrance. That’s a perk because you can mix and match components between the three names at will. B&G is the favored brand for sailboats. The B&G NAC-2 and NAC-3 autopilot computers are the basic start for the typical cruising yacht. High-end racers and luxury boats will want to look into the fancier H5000 autopilot system. 

Simrad sells a line of basic tiller pilots for above-deck autopilot installs on small boats.

Raymarine is one of the older and most trusted brands in marine electronics. Their autopilots are robust and come in any arrangement you like. In addition, they have one of the only above-deck wheel-drive autopilot systems on the market, the EV-100 SAIL. They also have tiller pilots and a complete lineup of below-deck options.

Furuno is an underdog in the recreational marine industry – favored by professionals but often overlooked by the private boat owner. Their autopilot NAVPILOT offerings are adaptive controllers designed to make boat handling easier. Most are designed for outboard hydraulic-steer fishing boats, but their control heads and computers will work with almost any type of setup.

How much does a sailboat autopilot cost?

The cost and complexity of an autopilot system depend on the size of the boat. Small tiller-steered daysailors can usually at a tiller pilot for less than $1000. 

A below-deck autopilot, with all of the components to make it work with your multi-function display, will set most owners back $4,000 or $6,000. In addition, if the boat does not already have a below-deck autopilot, there may be quite a bit of labor necessary to build platforms or brackets to adapt the drive unit to the rudder post.

Do sailing yachts have autopilot?

Yes, most sailboats larger than daysailers have autopilots. These vary in complexity from mechanical windvanes to extensive electronic systems that tie into the boat’s GPS and multi-function displays.

Can you sleep while your boat is on autopilot?

A good autopilot will steer a boat for you, on a constant heading or wind angle, through nearly any conditions. However, it cannot ensure that you don’t hit anything–like another vessel. It is illegal to operate a vessel without a “proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate…to make a full appraisal of the situation and or the risk of collision” (COLREGS Rule 5).

Matt has been boating around Florida for over 25 years in everything from small powerboats to large cruising catamarans. He currently lives aboard a 38-foot Cabo Rico sailboat with his wife Lucy and adventure dog Chelsea. Together, they cruise between winters in The Bahamas and summers in the Chesapeake Bay.

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Modern Sailboat Autopilots

• By Dave Schmidt
• Updated: May 8, 2019

Hand steering is one of sailing’s greatest joys, but the truth is that most sailors struggle to hold an accurate course for more than 30 minutes. This is why racing crews regularly rotate drivers, and why most cruising sailors carry an autopilot that can handle helm duties when the weather turns bleak, attention deficits lurk or other onboard responsibilities take priority over chasing the compass card.

While autopilots have been steering recreational sailboats since Derek Fawcett introduced his original Autohelm in 1974, contemporary systems use solid-state components, cutting-edge processors and powerful algorithms to deliver significantly better performance and advanced features to aid in getting from Point A to B. Here’s a look at what’s on the market and the important things to consider when shopping for a new electronic hand on the helm.

At their core, autopilots consist of four basic components: a black-box central processing unit (CPU), which is the system’s brains and power supply; a hydraulic or electric drive unit that delivers the brawn that physically turns the boat’s rudder; a control head, which the helmsman uses to set a course with the touch of a button; and a heading sensor, commonly a fluxgate compass. Additional bells and whistles, such as a rudder-indicator sensor, a wind-and-speed sensor, and GPS and chart plotter can also be tied into the pilot system via an NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 network, allowing the autopilot to access the boat’s navigation system for increased functionality (more on that later).

In its simplest application, once the autopilot’s installed, a skipper manually steers the boat onto a desired course and engages the autopilot using the control head, which is typically mounted near the helm station. Course adjustments are typically made in increments of 1 and 10 degrees, either via hard-key buttons on the control head, a handheld remote control or an app.

When engaged, the autopilot relies on external sensors and internal algorithms to apply the least amount of rudder movement to maintain course. No matter who’s driving, excessive rudder movement directly equates to drag. While autopilots don’t fatigue in big waves the way a sailor might, they do consume more juice when they’re working hard, so autopilot manufacturers develop software controls to properly hold course without sapping boat speed or draining the batteries.

One of the most critical decisions when choosing an autopilot is ensuring that the drive unit is properly sized for the boat. “It’s all based on the boat’s displacement,” says Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas’ marketing manager. When selecting a drive, he advises, “You want to use the boat’s dry weight and then add 20 percent to account for fuel, people and their gear.”

Autopilot drives are typically designed to work up to a certain weight, and it’s important to both performance and safety that this is properly matched as this in turn will dictate the system’s power requirements. Most sailboat-friendly autopilots draw between 2 and 7.5 amps, depending on the size of the CPU required by the system. While the CPUs in a given model range will typically employ identical algorithms, the bigger CPUs deliver more power to their drives.

When buying an autopilot system, be sure your vessel falls well within the designed working range. “When you fall on the line, you always want to go up,” advises McGowan. “It requires a lot of torque to drive the rudder arm in big seas, and if the pilot is up against its limit, there’s a lot more stress on the equipment and more heat buildup in the control unit.”

Matt Fries, B&G’s business acquisition manager, advises that customers should also take into account the design and sailing characteristics of their boat when selecting a drive. “A 40-footer with a full keel and an aft-hung barn-door rudder might require a more powerful drive than a 50-­footer of the same displacement that has a more balanced rig/keel configuration and a more modern rudder design,” he says. “It’s more important that the drive suits the boat than who makes it. If [a boat’s] existing drive works and is proven, we’re fine using it.” This same drive-system agnosticism exists amongst most manufacturers and potentially opens the door to cost-effective modular autopilot upgrades, as most modern autopilots can be matched up to power and control different drive types.

As with all electromechanical systems, the course that the autopilot steers is only as accurate as the input of its sensors — in this case, the most critical data is the vessel’s compass course. While fluxgate compasses provide accurate azimuth information, their reporting rates of 1-10 hertz are sluggish to report course changes compared to today’s nine-axis compasses, which feature updated rates in the ballpark of 10-30 hertz, or that number of times per second. Moreover, the new breed of compasses are accurate to roughly plus or minus 2 degrees magnetic, and also deliver pitch, roll and yaw information, and in some systems, even heel angle. All this data means the autopilot’s CPU and algorithms can more efficiently stay on course. When networked with other onboard devices, the data can also account for vessel motion and the affect it has on wind angle and speed data. As a result, nine-axis compasses have largely usurped fluxgate compasses.

“The EV1 is the system’s decision maker,” says McGowan, describing the role of the solid-state attitude heading reference system (AHRS) that’s central to Raymarine’s Evolution autopilot system. “All smarts are in there, and it sends its command signals to the control head and the drive.” The system is upgradeable, allowing Raymarine to push new features out to existing Evolution autopilots.

While nine-axis compasses have become the industry standard for autopilot heading sensors, even more precise options exist. “Furuno pilots interface really nicely with our SC33 satellite compass,” says Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior product manager. And, he notes, the cost for these sophisticated compasses has been dropping. “It delivers roll, pitch and heave information, and it’s accurate to .5 degrees, which allows the system to steer a straighter course.”

As previously mentioned, modern autopilots are typically NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 compatible, allowing their information to be displayed and sometimes controlled via the vessel’s chart plotter. “One thing that’s changed dramatically is that you used to need a dedicated control head, but now plotters can control this,” says McGowan. In other words, Raymarine chart plotters can control the company’s Evolution autopilots. While this capability exists across all brands, not everyone is sold on chart-plotter control alone.

“I wouldn’t go to sea with just a chart plotter controlling the autopilot,” says Kunz, citing safety risks. “With our NAVpilot-711C, you need a connection between the processor and the control head and the heading sensor.” Up to six control heads can be added to the system.

Irrespective of what interface a boat owner employs, today’s autopilot systems offer new capabilities and sailing-specific features. Perhaps most publicized is their ability to auto-calibrate and adapt to a vessels particular motion underway.

“Before our Evolution autopilots, it took a lot of work to get a [Raymarine] autopilot set up and calibrated,” says McGowan. “You had to spin circles so that the autopilot could figure out the boat’s magnetic deviation.” By contrast, Evolution pilots automatically “learn” the boat’s turning characteristics over time. They work right out of the box, and their AHRS sensors are so sensitive that they can calculate what’s happening on the boat in real time.

While this is great for anyone who hates owner’s manuals, not all experts are ready to trust in technology alone.

“All autopilots should be properly commissioned and sea-trialed to ensure proper steering performance before being put into service,” says Fries. While B&G’s pilots support auto-calibrating and self-learning capabilities, there’s useful information that’s best gleaned the old-fashioned way. “After swinging the compass, the system gives you a field percent score, which shows the ratio of the boat’s local magnetic field to the earth’s magnetic field. I like to see less than 15 percent.” (See “Smartphone Detection,” below)

Once set up and calibration is complete, users can dial in the amount of acceptable cross-track error when underway. Furuno, for example, offers two different driving modes: economy and precision. “With precision mode, we’re trying to keep the boat right on the cross-track line,” says Kunz. The system essentially sets a waypoint 100 miles out and maintains a course that’s within a 6- to 10-foot accuracy zone. In economy mode, the system lets the vessel’s course drift more, so there’s less rudder movement and drag. Kunz says this is especially beneficial to bluewater sailors.

Another interesting feature involves using the vessel’s cartography and chart plotter capabilities to automatically generate a route, which is sent to the autopilot as a series of waypoints. “If you’re using a Garmin chart plotter, running Garmin’s g3 cartography and using a Garmin autopilot, the system will follow a route that was generated by auto-­routing,” says Dave Dunn, Garmin’s director of sales and marketing for marine. Furuno also offers similar capabilities thanks to its ownership stake in TimeZero (née Nobeltec and MaxSea). “TimeZero can take in the boat’s polars and take into account wind [forecasts] and the best time to go,” says Kunz. Skippers using computers that run the necessary Windows-compatible software can access this same functionality using a USB gateway that connects to the autopilot’s processor.

While NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000 compatibility between the autopilot CPU and a chart plotter or computer has in some cases eliminated the need for a dedicated control head, it has also opened the door for app-based remote control. Contemporary chart plotters are all Wi-Fi enabled and most manufacturers, including Garmin and Furuno, build smart-device apps that deliver wireless plotter control, and therefore autopilot control. For the record, B&G and Raymarine do not allow this functionality for safety reasons.

In addition, Garmin allows users to control their autopilots via a quatix 5 watch and the company’s new Reactor Autopilot Remote controller, which features gesture control (see “Mind Control,” left). “You just point it to a heading, and the boat will sail the course,” says Dunn. As of now, Garmin is the only manufacturer to offer a gesture-sensitive control for a sailboat-compatible system, however Furuno makes a similar remote control for its powerboat-specific NAVpilot 300.

Recent years have also seen the advent of newer ­sailing-specific software features such as B&G’s ability to steer to specific wind angles. “If you engage the pilot’s wind mode, it will steer apparent wind angles, and downwind it will steer true wind angles,” says Fries. “The idea is that it’s easy to sail to the telltales upwind, but when you’re sailing downwind in seas, true wind angle is more stable and can avoid a crash gybe.”

McGowan says Raymarine has updated the Evolution’s ability to steer a course using a windvane as well, and it has also improved the system’s ability to perform automatic tacks when sailing to weather without overstanding its new course.

Finally, modern autopilots usually offer some sort of man-overboard mode, be it prescripted driving patterns or the ability to hold the bow in irons.

NKE takes this a step further with its system-agnostic Crew Transmitter, which establishes an electronic link with your nav system that’s broken if a user-worn pendant travels more than a certain distance away. Should this happen, the nav system drops a pin and triggers onboard MOB alarms. Using NKE’s Gyropilot remote control system, if an NKE autopilot is engaged at the time of the crew-overboard incident, it will either turn the boat into the wind or, if there’s no networked wind sensor, put the helm hard over.

Given the increased functionality, features and performance of modern autopilots, there’s little reason to suffer long stints at the wheel unless, of course, you feel like steering just for the fun of it.

David Schmidt is CW_’s electronics editor_.

Autopilot Manufacturers

• B&G : 603-324-2042; from $2,300.
• Furuno : 360-834-9300, from $3,400.
• Garmin : 800-800-1020, from $2,000.
• NKE Marine Electronics : from $5,400.
• Raymarine : 603-324-7900, from $2,000.

Smartphone Detection

Magnetic interference is a time-honored autopilot headache and can be triggered when equipment is loaded aboard or new systems are added. While properly installed, self-learning autopilots will eventually detect — and correct for — this interference, a smarter and more immediate tip, says B&G’s Matt Fries, involves using an app. “Everyone has a smartphone, and there are [deviation-sensing] apps that measure the boat’s magnetic field,” says Fries. “An owner might not realize that there’s an [outboard] motor behind a bulkhead.”

If there’s a magnetic-interference issue at play, this trick, coupled with the field-angle percentage that’s generated when swinging the boat and autopilot compass, should reveal the culprit.

Mind Control

An 8- to 10-knot southerly blew across Seattle’s Portage Bay as John Tenneson, owner of the nicely appointed J/145 Jedi , handed me Garmin’s new gesture-enabled Reactor Autopilot Remote controller, which was wirelessly tethered to Jedi’s Garmin autopilot. I aimed the controller 10 or 15 degrees off the port bow, pressed a button and Jedi immediately responded. Next, I made a slower turn to starboard, followed by a few dozen more maneuvers, executed simply by gesturing and pressing.

The remote also handles industry standard 1- and 10-degree course correcting commands and features three user-programmable hot keys, a dedicated MOB button and the ability to initiate auto tacks, based on apparent wind angles. The auto tack feature is especially helpful for shorthanded upwind work.

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• Sailboat Autopilot

The Helmsman's Friend - A Sailboat Autopilot

A sailboat autopilot is a thirsty beast, drinking your battery juice as if its life depended on it - which of course it does. So is it best to forego one of these and hand steer all day, for mile after mile, hour after hour? I don't think so...

So, providing your boat's batteries can keep up with its electrical appetite, an autopilot deserves a place on any sailboat, large or small.

Whilst larger boats will need a powerful inboard type working directly on the primary steering mechanism, one of the cockpit models will suit the smaller boats.

There are two cockpit versions of autopilots - one for wheel-steered boats and another for tillers.

All types rely on fluxgate compasses keep them on the straight and narrow.

Cockpit Versions of Sailboat Autopilots

For tiller-steered sailboats.

Autopilots for tiller steered vessels - or 'tillerpilots' as they are widely known - are the simplest form of sailboat autopilot, in which an electric motor is connected via a transmission mechanism directly to a push rod. The push rod extends or retracts to move the tiller.

Small tiller-pilots, suitable for boats up to around 4,500kg displacement, consist of a single module which includes the compass, the control unit, the motor and push rod.

In larger models, suitable for boats up to around 7,500kg displacement, the control unit and compass are separate modules. All tiller autopilots tend to be a little noisy - rather like the distant yapping of a small dog.

For Wheel-Steered Sailboats

Autopilots for wheel steered vessels are very similar to the tiller version, except that course corrections are applied to the wheel by a belt, rather than a pushrod.

Many offshore sailors choose to equip their sailboats with both  windvane self-steering gear  and an electronic autopilot - the former to steer the boat when sailing and the latter for use under power, when the electrical supply will be plentiful. 

A Fully Integrated Sailboat Autopilot System

In recent years the trend towards instrument system integration has extended to include those cockpit autopilots that have a separate control/display unit.

To get the most out of such units you need to integrate them with a compatible GPS or chartplotter , and a wind instrument either mounted at the masthead or at the stern of the boat. This gives three main operating modes:~

• Auto - the autopilot is locked onto a heading;
• Track - the autopilot is locked onto a track between two waypoints;
• Wind Vane - the autopilot maintains a course relative to the apparent wind. However, in practice if there's much of a swell running, neither a masthead instrument nor a stern-mounted one will give a particularly satisfactory result. The masthead unit will suffer from the motion of the boat, and a stern-mounted unit will be operating in a disturbed airflow. The resulting impulses have to be damped and processed to obtain a useful signal.

All sorts of data display and functionality is now available on the display unit - cross-track error, off-course alarm, waypoint proximity alarm, windshift alarm and so on.

One very useful function is 'Autotack', initiated by some judicious button pressing. Great news for a short-handed crew, who can now deal with the sails while the autopilot is putting the boat about.

Inboard Sailboat Autopilots

This type of autopilot can do all of the clever stuff mentioned above and lots more, being usually fully integrated with the boats navigational system.

They're much more powerful than the cockpit versions, suitable for large sailing boats and power boats, and a deal more expensive as a result.

Instead of connection to a tiller or wheel, they use push rods or hydraulic systems connected to the rudder post (or quadrant) to turn the main rudder directly.

Feeding the Beast

Power consumption of an electronic sailboat autopilot can be significant, the key factors affecting it being:~

• Sail trim - poorly trimmed sails and excessive weather helm;
• Sea state - bigger seas and increased yawing require more frequent steering adjustments;
• Autopilot setting - the more precise the course setting, the greater the work to be done by the autopilot;
• Boat displacement and waterline length - the more boat there is to move, the greater the greater the work to be done by the autopilot;
• Underwater shape - notwithstanding the tracking properties of a long-keeler, a keel-mounted rudder will require more force because it's impossible to balance, whereas a fully balanced spade rudder will be lightest on the helm.

It has to be said though, that if your battery charging regime has a weakness, an electronic sailboat autopilot will find it.

Linking a Tiller Pilot and a Vane Gear.

By removing the windvane from a vane-gear and connecting a small tiller autopilot in its place you can now use a vane-gear when under power. The pendulum or trim-tab now works with the autopilot, greatly reducing power consumption.

Some windvane gears, like the Auto-Helm and the Windpilot Pacifics for example, are constructed with this in mind and have the connection fitting built in. Other vane gear manufacturers don't recommend this approach, believing that the turbulence of the prop-wash can damage the pendulum blade bearings.

Next: Comparing a Sailboat Autopilot with Self-Steering Gears...

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Best Autopilot For Sailboats of 2024

Unless you plan on growing multiple limbs or you have a large, regular sailing crew, then it’s inevitable that at some point you’ll need an autopilot to help you stay on course while you adjust the sails or grab something from below deck. Autopilots are useful for both the day sailors that enjoy exploring their home harbors and waters and for cruisers who plan on sailing at night and for weeks on end. Whether you have a tiller-steered sailboat or a mechanically-steered boat, there’s an autopilot that will work for you and your vessel. We’ve put together a guide to help you find the best autopilot for sailboats and for the type of excursions that you enjoy. Take a look, and see you out there, sailor!

For more of our top sailing gear recommendations, check out the Best Marine GPS Chartplotters .

Quick Answer - The Best Autopilot For Sailboats

• Raymarine ST1000 Plus Tiller Pilot View at Amazon
• Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot View at Amazon
• Raymarine M81131 12 Volt Type 2 Autopilot Linear Drive View at Amazon
• Garmin GHC 20 Marine Autopilot Helm Control View at Amazon
• Raymarine Evolution Ev-200 Sail Autopilot View at Amazon

Comparison Table - Best Autopilot For Sailboats

Reviews - Best Sailboat Autopilot

Raymarine st1000 plus tiller pilot.

• Best Use : Tiller-steered Sailboats
• Warranty : 2 years
• Display Type : Backlit LCD
• Voltage : 10-16V DC
• Thrust : 125 lbs.
• Data Interface : SeaTalk, NMEA 0183
• Max. Recommended Displacement : 6,000 lbs.
• Improved Waterproofing Ensures That You’ll Be Able To Use This Autopilot In Calm Seas And Stormy Weather
• Intelligent Software Minimizes Draw On The Battery For Longer Battery Life
• Simple Six-Button Keypad Makes It Easy To Use This Autopilot

BEST FOR: AFFORDABLE PERFORMANCE

This classic tiller autopilot is the perfect accessory for your day sailing vessel. The ST1000 can accept NMEA data with its intelligent software for accurate navigation to a waypoint. The backlit LCD display shows you your locked course and navigational data and information, even in the evening or low-light conditions. This autopilot also has an AutoTack feature, which will tack the boat for you while you adjust and handle the sheets and sails. Finally, the autopilot comes with everything you’ll need to install and use your device, including mounting socket, tiller pilot socket, gasket, cable clip, and clamp, among other items.

Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot

• Warranty : N/A
• Display Type : N/A
• Voltage : 12V DC
• Thrust : 143 lbs.
• Data Interface : N/A
• Max. Recommended Displacement : 10,000 lbs.
• Precision Steering In A Variety Of Weather And Water Conditions
• Runs Very Quietly So That You Can Enjoy The Natural Sounds Of The Water
• Waterproof Sealing Protects Against Spray And The Elements

BEST FOR: SAILBOATS UP TO 32’ IN LENGTH

If your sailboat is tiller-steered and 32 feet or less in length, than this Simrad TP10 TillerPilot is a great autopilot option for you. The combination of the advanced software in this autopilot with its simple, five-key display and controls make this device really user-friendly and effective in all types of weather conditions. This autopilot also includes battery use optimization with a low-power draw so that your battery lasts longer, even with prolonged use. Finally, this autopilot is designed with the sailor in mind. It runs extremely quietly so that you can truly get away from it all and enjoy your time on the water without whirring and interruption from the autopilot.

Raymarine M81131 12 Volt Type 2 Autopilot Linear Drive

• Type : Linear Drive unit
• Best Use : Mechanically-steered Sailboats
• Voltage : N/A
• Data Interface : SeaTalk, NMEA 2000
• Max. Recommended Displacement : 33,000 lbs.
• High Performance With Minimal Electric Current Consumption
• Quiet Operation For Optimal Sailing Experience Without Extra Machine Noises Interrupting Your Peace And Quiet
• Two Year Warranty For Added Security

BEST FOR: SEASONAL CRUISERS

Do you spend your winters cruising south towards Florida or the Carribean? If so, the Raymarine M81131 12 Volt Type 2 Autopilot Linear Drive might be right for you and your vessel. This autopilot is designed for sailboats with existing mechanical steering systems; if your vessel is large enough to have a full motor system, then you’ll want this type of autopilot with a powerful thrust and an electromagnetic fail-safe clutch. Finally, this system works in coordination with SeaTalk and NMEA 2000 navigation data so that you can count on precision navigation from your home port to a waypoint.

Garmin GHC 20 Marine Autopilot Helm Control

• Best Use : Power & Sailboats under 40 feet in length
• Warranty : 2-year limited (Owner Installed); 2-year parts and onboard (Certified Installer)
• Display Type : Glass-Bonded, Anti-Glare Color TFT Lens
• Voltage : 9-32V DC
• Thrust : N/A
• Data Interface : NMEA 2K
• Max. Recommended Displacement : Best for Power & Sailboats under 40 feet in length
• Bright Four Inch Display With Glass-Bonded, Anti-Glare Lens For Optimal Viewing
• Daylight Readability Is Enhanced By High-Contrast Color Scheme
• Compatible With Quatix Marine Watch And Other Garmin Products

BEST FOR: OVERNIGHT EXCURSIONS

If you’re headed out on a multi-day excursion which might require some overnight cruising, you’re going to need an autopilot with a display that you can read well in low light conditions and at nighttime. This Garmin GHC 20 Marine Autopilot Helm Control is the perfect product for that type of an adventure. 

Its four inch display with enhanced nighttime readability and glass-bonded, anti-glare lens to prevent fogging and glare in sunny conditions will help you maintain control in all types of conditions, at all times of day. It also has a 170 degree viewing angle, so whether you’re up on deck adjusting the sails or below deck grabbing an extra sheet, you’ll be able to glance over at the display and see what’s going on. This autopilot also works for both power and sailing vessels. Finally, its five-button control is easy to use, so you’ll be off on your sailing adventure before you know it.

Raymarine Evolution Ev-200 Sail Autopilot

• Best Use : Mid-Size Mechanically-Steered Sailboats
• Warranty : 2 years; 3 years with product registration
• Thrust : 650 lbs.
• Max. Recommended Displacement : 24,000 lbs.
• Contains A High Tech Sensor And Full-Function Course Computer
• Uses Artificial Intelligence Algorithms To Maximize Performance, Instead Of Manual Calibration
• EV Sensor Core (GPS Unit) Can Be Mounted Above Or Below Deck

BEST FOR: SAILBOATS WITH MECHANICAL STEERING

If you’re looking for a powerful, tech-forward autopilot with cutting edge navigation technology, then the Raymarine Evolution EV-200 Sail Autopilot might be the right one for you. Designed with sophisticated AI algorithms that perceive the environment and instantly calculate and evolve steering commands, this autopilot optimizes your cruising experience without the need for manual calibration or adjustment. The result is precise steering and course keeping, regardless of the vessel speed or sea conditions. Finally, the package includes the EV sensor core, which is similar to a marine GPS unit. It can be bracket-mounted either above or below deck, depending on space and convenience.

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN BUYING AUTOPILOTS FOR SAILBOATS

It’s important to consider the size of your sailboat before you purchase an autopilot. Autopilots are designed with specific thrust and power draws depending on the boat that it’s optimized for. Be sure to know the length of your boat as well as the water displacement (in pounds) so that you can choose the optimal autopilot device for you.

STEERING TYPE

Autopilots are a complicated piece of technology designed to keep you on course when you can’t be at the helm. If your sailboat is steered with a tiller, then you’ll be looking at the tiller-steered category of autopilots. If it’s mechanically steered, then you’ll be shopping for autopilots that are compatible with that type of a system. West Marine has a great resource archive for everything you need to know about sailing. Check out this informational article on  selecting an autopilot for more information.

HOW YOU USE YOUR SAILBOAT

Do you like to go out for the day to explore the area around your home port or do you cruise down to the Caribbean seasonally in winter? Are you able to handle your sailboat by yourself or do you typically need a crew? These are all types of questions to ask yourself before investing in an autopilot. Consider the type of boat that you have and how you enjoy using it to choose the best sailing autopilot unit for you.

FEATURES EXPLAINED

A horizontal bar fitted to the rudder of the boat and used as a lever for steering.

This term refers to the main body of the boat, including the sides, bottom, and deck, but excluding the mast, sails, rigging, and other features.

This term refers to the way a sailboat is maneuvered. If your desired course is into the wind, the boat is turned toward the wind so that the direction from which the wind blows changes from one side to the other, thereby allowing forward progress.

The helm of the boat is the place from which the boat is steered.

The sheets refer to the ropes or lines that adjust the movable portions of the sails.

This term refers to the front end of the sailboat.

The stern is the back end of the sailboat.

The port side of the sailboat is the left side of the boat when facing forwards towards the bow (or front) of the vessel.

The starboard side of the sailboat is the right side of the boat when facing forwards towards the bow or front of the vessel.

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Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

Autopilot Buyers Guide for sailing yachts

• Rupert Holmes
• September 6, 2021

Rupert Holmes looks at how to choose a suitable autopilot system for cruising yachts

There’s a bewildering array of options available for autopilot systems, which can make selecting the best for your yacht a daunting task.

Some manufacturers offer such a plethora of products covering everything from outboard-powered fishing boats to large motor yachts it can be difficult to pick out those that are ideal for sailing yachts of moderate size.

Equally, you may be able to retain some elements of your existing system, such as the drive unit and control pads, which will reduce the cost of upgrading your autopilot.

Many systems are sold as packages, which can add to the confusion.

However, these make more sense once you figure out the key items – especially the compass, 9-axis sensor or course computer – most boats will benefit from updating.

Integration with other on board electronics is an important factor if you want the autopilot to steer to a constant wind angle, or to display compass course on the instruments.

B&G’s Triton controller

Mixing autopilot brands?

While many items from different brands will talk to each other, it makes sense to limit the variety as far as possible to avoid any problems.

However, there’s usually no need for drive units to be the same brand as the remainder of the system.

These are generally fairly simple 12/24V motors that respond in the same way to the output from the course computer, without other complex electronics that need a data feed with specific protocols.

It’s always worth checking with suppliers, or directly with a manufacturer’s technical helplines, to be sure that the products you plan to buy will work together as expected.

Before going shopping, make an audit of the elements of your existing autopilot system – and what will benefit from replacement.

In many cases an autopilot system can be updated significantly without replacing the drive unit, control keypads or display units, which can make upgrading more affordable.

In most cases drive units are specified for a maximum laden displacement .

For many yachts this can easily be in excess of 20% above the boat builder’s quoted figure for light displacement.

Garmin CHC10 Remote

Many companies bundle the parts that are most likely to be needed to upgrade an existing system into packages, often at reduced prices compared to the individual components.

Garmin, for instance, calls these ‘Corepacks’ and, unlike other manufacturers, this is the prime way in which key components other than control units and drives are sold.

The GHP Reactor Mechanical Retrofit Corepack (£1,460) includes a 9-axis sensor, course computer, and the higher-spec GHC20 control display.

It’s therefore a cost-effective option offering for anyone looking to update an existing system.

Raymarine’s EV-200 Sail Pack (£2,115) consists of an EV-1 Sensor Core, ACU-200 pilot computer, p70/70s control head, plus a cabling kit.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

B&G’s DD15 Drive Unit is a compact and energy efficient design for yachts from 30-40ft

1. Below deck drive units

These are a key in getting good pilot performance and in maximising reliability.

Yet in many ways the physical means of moving the rudder has changed little in the past decade or two.

Whether driven directly by an electric motor, or via hydraulics, these are non-intelligent items that simply respond to the changing 12V (or 24V) outputs from the course computer.

The two key choices are between hydraulic and electric-mechanical units and between a linear or rotary drive.

Linear drives are used to connect directly to the quadrant and are the most common type, especially on relatively recent boats.

Rotary drives can drive a gear wheel where the steering system incorporates a chain drive.

Electric units are more efficient on power consumption, easier to install and cheaper than hydraulic options.

However, the latter can be more powerful, so are typically found on larger yachts.

Garmin offers a number of Linear Drives, including the Class A Mechanical Linear Drive (£1,600) for yachts up to 12,900kg loaded displacement.

The company’s Class B units include a compact model rated for 22 tons, while the standard size model will cope with 35.8 tons loaded displacement.

Similarly Raymarine’s mechanical linear drives (£1,800-2,065) are offered in three sizes for boats with displacement of up to 11,000kg, 15,000kg and 20,000kg laden displacement.

Above this a hydraulic drive will be needed.

Raymarine’s ST2000 is a basic all-in-one model for boats up to 4,500kg

2. Tiller pilots

These naturally fall into two different categories – all-in-one units that include a basic course computer, fluxgate compass, control pad and, in some cases, a one-line display.

Some can also interface with other on-board electronics.

Raymarine’s ST1000 (£525) and ST2000 (£630) are basic all-in-one models for boats up to 3,000kg and 4,500kg respectively.

They are now dated units that include only a basic fluxgate compass and limited connectivity via Raymarine’s original SeaTalk, or NMEA0183 for GPS and apparent wind data.

If you’re able to spend more there are much better options available.

Raymarine’s EV-100 Tiller Pilot is a motor-only unit for boats up to 6,000kg that can be paired to an ACU-100 course computer and EV-1 9-axis sensor.

It’s therefore capable of steering a much better course than the ST1000/2000 models, though won’t match the performance of a belowdeck system as it’s impossible to fit a rudder angle sensor.

In addition, unlike B&G’s SD10 drive there’s no automatic clutch, so switching between automatic steering and standby modes may not be a smooth operation in challenging conditions.

The EV-100 tiller pilot is priced at £1,365, packaged with an ACU-100 course computer, EV-1 sensor and cabling kit, though a control unit is still required.

While the Navico group’s products for sailing have been sold under the B&G brand for almost a decade, this isn’t true of its all-in-one tiller pilots, which are legacy products that still carry Simrad branding.

The TP10 (£470) is a basic standalone model for smaller boats, while the TP22 (£610) and TP32 (£760) models can operate in either standalone mode, or networked with wind instruments and/or separate compasses via NMEA0183 or 2000.

They are suitable for boats up to 34ft and 37ft respectively.

A neat alternative to a conventional tiller pilot

The B&G SD10 drive (£1,059) is a neat alternative to a conventional tiller pilot that uses a Bowden cable (as used for steering most RIBs) to connect a below-decks motor to the tiller.

It has two further big advantages over conventional tiller pilots.

Firstly there’s a clutch, so the pilot is always connected to the tiller and doesn’t need to be removed when returning to manual steering mode.

Secondly, it incorporates a rudder angle sensor, so offers tiller steered yachts that don’t have a quadrant all the advantages of a below decks system.

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Raymarine is the only company that now offers a wheel pilot, the EV-100 Wheel Pilot

3. Wheel autopilots

These have an on-deck motor much as for tiller pilots, making them a cost effective option with relatively easy installation.

However, unlike a below deck system, the motor unit is exposed to the elements and there’s a limit to the size and weight of a yacht that can realistically use a wheel pilot.

In addition, they generally can’t use a rudder angle sensor, so course keeping is compromised.

Raymarine is the only company that now offers a wheel pilot, the EV-100 Wheel Pilot (£665).

It produces 30Nm of thrust and is suitable for boats with a laden displacement of up to 7,500kg.

Both SeaTalkNG and NMEA2000 data protocols are supported.

It’s designed to be used with an ACU-100 course computer and EV-1 Sensor.

Outside its high-end H5000 series B&G offers two options, the NAC-2 and NAC-3

4. Course computers

This area has seen huge development and significant improvements to course keeping .

All current systems will interface with the 9-axis sensors that measure rate of yaw, pitch and heel, as well as having a built in gyro compass.

They can therefore respond to gusts and waves even before the boat has changed course.

Raymarine produces several different course computers (Autopilot Control Units, or ACU) to suit different types of boat and drive unit.

Although not all are suited to sailing yachts.

Designed to simplify use where possible, much of the set up process is automated, and there are no user-adjustable settings beyond three easy to select modes.

The latest Lighthouse II software update includes stabilisation of wind speed and angle using data from the 9-axis sensor; which means even better course keeping.

The ACU-100 (£420) is for smaller sailing yachts using the EV-100 tiller or wheel pilot.

The ACU-200 (£845) is for any vessel with one of the company’s Type 1 drive units.

It can supply up to 7A of power to the drive unit and suits most boats up to 11,000kg laden displacement.

The more powerful ACU-400 (£1,905) can supply 30A to 12V or 24V systems; capable of steering very large yachts, including those with hydraulic drive units.

In both cases the units are capable of using both Raymarine’s SeaTalkNG data protocol and NMEA2000.

Outside its high-end H5000 series B&G offers the NAC-2 (£950) and NAC-3 (£1,700).

The former provides output current of up to 8A for yachts of up to 35ft, whereas the latter is rated at 30A continuous, for larger yachts.

Garmin’s course computers are offered as part of its Core Packs.

B&G’s Rudder angle sensor

5. Essential accessories for autopilots

The choice of system elements, including rudder angle sensors, compasses – or 9-axis sensors – and control keypads or displays is determined by the brand of your pilot computer.

Note that some drive units include a rudder angle sensor.

Rudder angle sensor

Sometimes supplied with the motor; check specs when comparing prices.

• Garmin GRF10 Rudder Feedback Sensor (£199)
• Raymarine M81105 Rudder angle transducer (£265)
• B&G has four options to suit different systems (priced from £290-320)

Course sensor

All the main manufacturers now use 9-axis sensors that measure heading, rate of turn, pitch, roll and yaw, giving far greater data inputs to the course computer than gyro compasses that were the best option less than 10 years ago.

Garmin only lists this sensor in its pilot packages, but Raymarine’s EV-1 Sensor is available separately for £740, while B&G’s Precision compass is £680.

Raymarine’s EV-1 Sensor

6. Control pads and remotes 

These can add significantly to the cost of an autopilot system.

But if you ever sail short handed , then a controller at the helm and one at the companionway, allowing the boat to be conned from the shelter of the spray hood, are a minimum for any offshore yacht.

This also offers a layer of redundancy should a unit fail.

In many cases a multifunction display (MFD ) can be used to control a pilot of the same brand, though can be a lot more convoluted than using a keypad.

Remote controls are great for anyone on watch alone, but can be an expensive upgrade, especially if you need to also buy a base station to communicate with the remote.

Raymarine Smart Controller

• Raymarine Smart Controller (remote) with base station (£630)
• Raymarine S100 wireless remote with base station (£440)
• Garmin GHC10 Marine Autopilot Control Unit (£500)
• Garmin GHC20 Marine Autopilot Control Unit (£580)
• Garmin CHC10 Remote (£270)
• B&G’s Triton2 keypads (£350 each)

A Triton2 display (£530) is needed as well, but can also be used to display other data.

TECHNICAL HELP FOR AUTOPILOTS

Once you’ve outlined what you think is the best upgrade route don’t be shy about asking for help to confirm you’ve identified the best options.

Many manufacturers have both online and telephone helplines:

• raymarine.custhelp.com/app/home
• bandg.com/en-gb/contact-us-gb/

About the author

Rupert Holmes is a freelance yachting journalist with more than 85,000 miles’ experience in a wide variety of craft, including cruising and racing yachts, and significant shorthanded sailing.

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Yacht Autopilot Explained: 13 Helpful Tips (For Beginners)

Some yachts are equipped with autopilot devices, and others are not.

Autopilot (or autohelm) is a self-steering device used on ships or boats to maintain a specific course without constant action from a human.

Here’s an Idea of How Autopilot on Yachts Work:

Not every yacht has autopilot. Bigger yacht types are more likely to have autopilot, and there are different levels of automation. Some autopilot systems will only keep the course you set, while others will control both the course of the ship and the speed of the motor as well.

Table of Contents

What is Autopilot Mode On A Yacht?

Autopilot can be either electronic or mechanical devices that allow a ship to maintain course on its own.

An electronic autopilot uses magnetic compasses, wind directions, or GPS systems to determine where to go. 

A mechanical autopilot device is often used to keep a sailboat on a given course towards the wind that frees the helmsman from constantly steering.

What Types of Yachts Are Equipped With Autopilot?

Typically, “day-boats” or yachts that are meant for daily use, will not have autopilot.

These vessels are generally used in the short term, and the autopilot equipment is unnecessary.

However, autopilot is becoming more and more common on boats that are 20 feet or longer.

If your boat is not equipped with autopilot, you can install this feature after the fact.

The 3 Types of Autopilot:

1. tiller pilot:.

The most simple type of autopilot is called a tiller pilot.

This attaches to a sailboat’s tiller and plugs into 12 volts supplied by the boat’s battery. It steers the boat to a magnetic compass heading.

These are inexpensive, simple to install, and work reliably.

2. Sailboat Wheel Autopilot:

Sailboats with a wheel require a different steering device.

The most common one for smaller sailboats is a belt that drives a pulley attached to the wheel.

This drive is controlled by an electronic amplifier that can use compass heading, GPS waypoint, or wind to steer the boat.

3. Electromechanic or Hydraulic Autopilot:

Larger sailboats use an electromechanical or hydraulic ram that connects directly to the rudder post.

The electronic amplifier can also control these with compass heading, GPS waypoint, or wind direction to steer the boat.

A separate actuator of this type is a good back-up steering device if the wheel steering mechanism fails.

Why Should I Use Autopilot?

When sailing, the autopilot can save you from constantly monitoring the vessel, but you can also save time and fuel while on your voyage.

Most autopilot systems can hold a straighter course than a man could, allowing you to stay on course easier.

There are also benefits from autopilot regarding fuel efficiency and convenience. When you travel over long distances, you might need to take your hands off the wheel.

It’s very convenient for a big rig to have autopilot to help you stay the course.

Can an Autopilot Put my Boat in Danger?

Boats are regularly lost when they sail under autopilot, getting caught on a reef, or fall into other dangers.

If you are not watching out, you can endanger your own boat, passengers, and other boats on the water. Only engage an autopilot when someone is on watch and looking out for dangers.

While autopilot is a diligent helmsman, it does not make decisions for the safety of your boat.

That will always be the captain’s job!

How To Sail A Yacht:

If you have decided to take up sailing, there are some things that you will need to know:

1. Know the Terms

Any sailor on a boat will need to know the terms that are used while sailing.

This will help to communicate with other sailors and will help you when it comes time to sail.

One of the most important sets of terms to know are the parts of a boat:

• Starboard: the right side of the boat while you are looking towards its front.
• Port: the left side of the boat while you are looking towards its front.
• Bow: the front of the boat.
• Stern: the back of the boat.
• Hull: the body of the boat.
• Mast: the vertical pole that supports the sails.
• Boom: the shorter horizontal pole that is attached to the sail.
• Lines: the ropes that control the sails.

If you choose to learn more about the terminology, the sails and their parts are broken down into even more specific terms.

2. Find The Wind Before Turning On The Autopilot

When operating a yacht with sails , you will be dependent on the wind. You need to learn to “find the wind.”

One of the most major things that sailors need to know is how to find the wind. The wind determines what type of sailing day you are likely to have and can make a big difference.

Most basic sailing classes will go over the basics of reading the wind and working with the wind.

When referencing the wind, sailors look at it in two different ways: what direction the wind is actually going and how this direction pertains to them. Both of these distinctions are important.

Oftentimes, we use clues to indicate wind direction. These clues can include flags or tails tied to their rigging.

When you have decided from what direction the wind is coming from, you can then decide the “windward” side of the boat.

The “windward” side is the side that is closest to the wind. The other side is known as the “leeward” side.

3. Learn to Hoist Your Sails

Practicing hoisting your sail is important and should be attempted for the first time while moored or with a light wind.

One of the most important things when it comes to hoisting your sails is to make sure that your sail and it’s lines are all the way to the top with no twists, turns, or wraps.

If the sail is not properly straight, it can cause expensive damage.

Make sure everything is set up the right way before turning on the autopilot system.

4. Learn Your Points of Sail

Every time you change course, your point of sail changes.

A point of sail is an all-encompassing term for the direction your boat faces concerning the wind.

Knowing your sail points can help you be successful in steering your vessel and knowing how the wind will affect your vessel in different wind conditions.

Sail trim must be correct for the point of sail you choose:

5. Learn to Control Your Speed

When sailing, you will need to know how to control your speed.

Without a traditional motor, your speed will rely on how you handle your sails concerning the wind.

With a motor installed on the yacht, it’s much easier to control this, especially with an autopilot system.

To slow your speed, you will want to ease the sheets out and let the sails luff. Keep in mind that while you are slowing down, a heavier boat will take longer to stop due to the momentum they gain from their weight.

The quickest way to lose speed is to turn to direct into the wind.

6. Learn the Navigation Rules

Like any water vessel, you will need to learn the navigation rules before you set sail.

These rules can differ for sailboats than for power vessels.

Usually, sailboats are given the right of way when faced with powerboats or other vessels. However, you will still want to ensure you make the safest decision for each encounter you come across while dealing with any other type of vessel.

Here’s a guide we’ve made on how to use the horn on a boat and here’s another guide we did on how you pass by other boats (the right way!)

7. Learn to Use Your Autopilot Device

Whether you are using a mechanical or electronic autopilot system, the process should be pretty easy.

Basic electronic autopilot systems detect the current heading of the boat and compare it with the heading that has been sent by the operator of the vessel.

If the device finds that the boat has strayed off course, it will instruct the mechanical system to correct the course. Autopilots may also interface with the GPS and steer toward a waypoint.

Wind direction can be used as an input to the autopilot to keep the boat sailing at a constant angle to the wind. This reduces the need to adjust sails and keeps the boat sailing efficiently.

Electronic autopilot systems can range in sophistication. Some are simply a device that attaches to and operates a tiller, or some can be hydraulic pumps that operate rams that control the rudder.

These devices are easy to use for the operator, and you often put the boat on the heading you want and hit a button.

This will keep the boat on that particular heading.

Some are more complicated and can be set to steer to the wind or even have the option to connect to chart plotters to make the boat steer a certain course.

You can also have a mechanical autopilot system. These are on the boat’s stern that attaches to a wind operated vane that works with the rudder and informs it when to turn.

A mechanical autopilot system is ideal for long passages that don’t have a lot of wind change.

8. Make Sure to Always Keep An Eye Out

While sailing, even with an autopilot system, you should always keep an eye out.

Autopilot systems cannot anticipate other vessels and properly avoid them or give them the proper space they need.

Sailing, or boating in general, requires supervision and attention.

You need to make sure that you give other vessels the proper space and make sure you can sail safely.

9. Ensure Your Boat Is In Proper Working Order

One good rule that should be followed by all boat owners is to make sure your boat is in proper working order.

If you do not properly take care of or manage your equipment, you can be caught in a compromising position.

Ensure you check your lines, mast, sails, hull, backup engine, or any other necessary sailing equipment.

Even the smallest issue can worsen with time and use, and you will want to make sure you do not allow that to happen.

If everything is working, there is less of a chance that you will be stuck out on the open water.

10. Take a Class

One of the best things you can do to become an efficient and confident sailor is to take a sailing class.

Even if you aspire to sail a large cruising boat, the basics are best learned in small boats. Small boats give the student the feel of sailing in a boat that quickly responds to steering and sail trim.

A basic sailing class will teach you the proper terms, the theory and practice behind sailing, the navigation rules, the necessary safety equipment and procedures, overboard drills, the necessary knots, and will allow you to practice sailing.

Other advanced classes are also offered if you want to learn even more about the hobby.

Sailing can be an addictive hobby that will leave you wanting to know as much as you can.

Just make sure that you know the necessary and confidence to handle sailing before you set out on the open water.

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Autopilots for Racing Sailors

• By David Schmidt
• Updated: July 6, 2021

Autopilots aren’t new, but modern technology has made today’s autopilots considerably better than previous-generation offerings. Moreover, the utility that contemporary autopilots offer make them must-have equipment for doublehanded sailors racing aboard 30- to 50-footers. Here’s a look at how they work, the hardware and software involved, and the performance and safety benefits that they deliver, both for ground-up installations and refits.

Autopilots are electro­mechanical systems that—as their name implies—can steer a boat to a specified compass course, wind angle, waypoint or route. Unlike human drivers, autopilots never suffer concentration gaps, or get tired or scared, so long as they’re fed a steady diet of information and DC power.

While each manufacturer has its own approach to hardware and software, autopilot hardware generally consists of a processor (sometimes also called an autopilot computer), a power-supply unit, a control head, a rudder-angle sensor, networked sensors (e.g., wind, speed and depth), a drive system and—optionally—one or more remote controls. Additionally, some autopilots employ advanced sensors that are used to clean or stabilize networked sensor data to give the pilot better, more reliable information. We’ll get to that later.

Most autopilot processors and power-supply units are black boxes. The processors pull information from the system’s networked sensors and rapidly crunch the numbers needed to efficiently drive the boat. They’re networked to the control head(s) and/or the boat’s multifunction display, which serves as the system’s user interface. Power-supply units draw DC power from the boat’s battery banks and send it—as needed and as dictated by the processor—to the system’s hydraulic- or mechanical-drive system (i.e., the system’s muscle; this typically consists of a hydraulic cylinder or mechanical arm that attaches to the hull on one side and the rudder quadrant on its business end, plus a rudder-angle indicator), which actuates the rudder.

Unlike human helmsmen, autopilots can’t see what’s ahead of or behind the boat, so they leverage networked instrument data to keep the boat sailing to its specified course, wind angle or waypoint. Because of this, all autopilot systems require at a minimum a heading sensor, wind sensor and boatspeed sensor. Years ago, autopilots used fluxgate compasses for heading information. While these worked, their analog nature and sluggish reporting rates (ballpark is once per second, or 1 hertz) yielded jumpy numbers when sailing in big seas. Their inherent latency doesn’t mix well with modern processors either. Because of this, most auto­pilot manufacturers switched to employing solid-state, nine-axis compasses for heading sensors several years ago. These compasses provide accurate pitch, yaw and roll information (typically accurate to plus or minus 2 degrees), which they report at a rate of 10 hertz (ballpark).

Wind data is obviously critical to performance sailing, and autopilot driving is no exception. “You need a masthead unit for wind angle and windspeed,” says Mike Vellucci of EuroMarine Trading, which imports and distributes NKE marine electronics. Vellucci says this information comes in the form of apparent wind angle and apparent windspeed data. Most modern systems also use heading data from their networked compass and boatspeed from either a ­networked through-hull transducer to measure speed over water or their networked GPS antenna to measure speed over ground to calculate true-wind data. The autopilot system then uses this data to calculate the true wind angle, true windspeed and true wind direction. Once networked and installed, an autopilot will sail to the [wind] angle you tell it, Vellucci says. “It will do everything in its power to [hold] that [angle].”

Critically, autopilots can steer to AWAs or TWAs, depending on the situation and point of sail. Apparent wind angle is generally used when sailing upwind, when the angle is stable, Garmin’s Jon Josephson says, adding that TWA is generally preferred when autopilots are sailing downwind, both to avoid accidental jibes and to yield better performance should the wind get shifty.

Additionally, autopilots require speed-over-water ­sensors and a networked GPS. “The more data we can feed the pilot, the more it can do for us,” Raymarine’s Jim McGowan says.

Unlike autopilot systems of yore, most contemporary autopilot manufacturers offer high-performance sensors that can be used to remove vessel motion from heading and wind-angle information. “Pitch and roll can induce AWS,” B&G’s Matt Eeles says. “It’s noisy data.” For example, B&G’s H5000 CPU can integrate the boat’s motion and heel angle, and deliver gyro-compensated wind information, yielding stable apparent-wind readings. Likewise, Garmin, NKE and Raymarine autopilots also have the ability to scrub data for vessel movement. “When the masthead [wind] sensor moves, it throws error into the wind calculations,” McGowan says. “[Raymarine’s] EV1 sensor delivers real-time filtering and stabilization so that oscillations are removed and clean information is fed into the autopilot’s processor.”

The other significant advantage of cleaner data is reduced rudder articulation, which reduces electrical consumption and bolsters VMG. “If you put raw sensor data [into the autopilot], it will be all over the place and it will burn lots of power,” Eeles says. “You don’t want the pilot to react to every little puff or change…it risks the pilot being out of control. You also don’t want to dampen the data because this creates a lot of latency.”

Modern autopilots can also employ software to introduce some level of intelligence to automated driving. For example, most contemporary autopilots have the ability to deal with gusts and wind shifts to prevent the boat from accidentally rounding up or jibing.

“If an autopilot is sailing to a wind angle and a 5-knot gust comes, you want it to do what you’d do as a helmsman: Bear away and take the sting out,” Eeles says. While this is a great feature, Josephson reminds users to build a certain amount of margin into their user-selected parameters. “Don’t set the jibe alarm at 178 degrees,” he says. “If the wind gets behind the sail, the boom will go over.”

Josephson recommends setting the alarm at 160 degrees. “Make sure the parameter is set so it’s not on the edge,” he says.

Remote controls are the final important consideration, especially for shorthanded sailors, because they enable course changes or corrections to be made from anywhere on board rather than from a multi­function display or a control head. “It’s [my] primary pilot controller,” Eeles says.

“There are tasks that require all hands on deck,” McGowan says. “It’s not always an option to run back to the cockpit. Plus, there are also some safety considerations.”

These remotes can also provide an additional safety margin for doublehanded sailing, where man-overboard scenarios can be a true ­nightmare. Vellucci explains that NKE autopilots have two modes: solo and fully crewed. Sailors carry remote controls that are electronically linked to the autopilot (think geofencing); should a remote break contact with the autopilot, one of its MOB modes activates, creating an audible alarm and automatically switching the system’s graphic display(s) to a dedicated MOB page. “In solo mode, it puts the boat head-to-wind,” Vellucci says. “In crewed mode, the system displays a bearing and distance to where the MOB event occurred, [and it also] starts a timer.” (Note: The waypoint marks the latitude and longitude of where electronic contact with the remote was lost, not the MOB’s real-time location.)

These advancements offer huge benefits to doublehanded crews, but it’s critical to properly spec the system for the boat. For example, if you’re ­taking a J/105 that’s mostly been used for round-the-buoy racing and are adding a complete autopilot system, Josephson and McGowan both advise using vessel weight as a guide for what system to purchase. “It doesn’t matter if the boat is tiller- or wheel-driven,” McGowan says, adding that Raymarine (and other manufacturers) make autopilots for both.

You need a drive unit that works with your quadrant and the boat’s displacement, McGowan says. He also notes that most boatbuilders list the dry weight of their steeds, which doesn’t account for sails, crew, provisions or additional safety gear. In the case of a J/105, the dry displacement weight is 7,750 pounds. “We always add 20 percent, so 9,300 pounds,” McGowan says.

Josephson agrees, adding that if the boat’s racing weight is close to the maximum a drive can handle, it’s usually ­better to step up to a bigger drive ­system. Another consideration involves the number of rudders. “One drive is enough [to control a boat with two rudders],” Josephson says, adding that these boats—for example, Class 40s—typically have dual rudder quadrants and a connecting tie bar, so the autopilot drive needs to be attached to only one of the quadrants. “But the second rudder might add 50 percent of the load of the first rudder.”

Conversely, if you’re ­refitting a new autopilot into a boat that’s already equipped with an older autopilot system, even if it’s built by a different manufacturer, odds are good that you’ll be able to reuse pumps and drives. This is because most marine-electronics ­companies source their drive units from the same manufacturers, so they’re not typically proprietary. “If there’s a nameplate on the drive, take a photo of it and talk to your dealer,” McGowan says. “This can be a big money saver because drive units can be many thousands of dollars.”

While it’s theoretically ­possible to add—for example—a Raymarine autopilot to a B&G-, Garmin- or NKE-equipped boat, most sailors will find that it’s best to stay within the same electronics manufacturer’s (semi)walled garden because this usually allows the boat’s multifunction display to talk to—and control—the autopilot.

Another important consideration involves where the drive system is physically located. As mentioned, most autopilot drives are situated belowdecks; however, some systems are cockpit-mounted. While these systems work fine, some cockpit-­mounted, tiller-driven systems can present a tripping hazard to a doublehanded team that is constantly scurrying around the boat. Because of this, below-deck drives are considered the optimal installation for doublehanded or ­shorthanded crews.

Irrespective of how or where your autopilot is installed, it’s critical to spend time practicing with your system and dialing in its user-configured parameters prior to hitting the racecourse. “I think the key is using it so that you understand how it works,” Josephson says. “Understanding the [user-selected] inputs can greatly affect the performance of the pilot…. [Sailors] really need to use [their autopilot], understand what it’s doing and how [parameter] changes affect its performance.”

So, if you’re interested in shorthanded racing and considering adding a modern autopilot, not only will it drive your boat with far more precision than an old-school system, but it will also do so while consuming less DC power and exerting less ­rudder as well.

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Autonomous boats: The rise of self-sailing vessels

• April 22, 2021

Sam Fortescue reports on the latest developments in autonomous boats and self-sailing technology, which is ready to be deployed in a variety of uses from weather monitoring to shipping

‘Vessel not under command’ looks set to take on a new meaning, with the race to develop a new generation of autonomous boats sailed by artificial intelligence (AI). But what will it mean for other water users?

Today we’re all familiar with the concept of autonomous vehicles. Self-driving cars are the next development frontier, and the tools needed to make them a reality are being intensively tested by some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech firms.

Less well known is the similar trajectory being followed in the marine industry. So-called unmanned autonomous vehicles, or marine drones, are attracting research interest from everyone from backyard inventors up to engineering behemoths like Rolls-Royce.

They come in all shapes and sizes, with intended purposes varying from meteorology and oceanology, to cargo, surveillance and defence. From the outside, some resemble normal sailing multihulls.

You might never realise there is no human aboard Artemis Technologies’ self-sailing cat, for example, with its 50-knot top speed. The Belfast-based company has based its design for a 45m-long Autonomous Sailing Vehicle (ASV) on technology developed for the 2017 America’s Cup.

Artemis Technologies’ autonomous boat design is based on the 2017 America’s Cup catamaran. Photo: Artemis Technologies

With two fixed wing sails, the catamaran rises up on four foils and hits top speed in just 20 knots of wind. Regenerating propellers on two of the foils charge a large battery bank on board, and that harvesting of energy brings the boat speed back down to 30 knots.

In lighter 8-knot winds, the boat still foils at 20 knots, and electric motors spin propellers that bump the speed back up to its optimum 30 knots. Artemis believes it can be used as a constant-speed commercial vessel for delivering cargo.

Meanwhile, in Plymouth, a consortium including IBM is testing a new Mayflower, a 15m power trimaran studded with solar panels, that should be capable of operating independently for months at a time. It has a top speed of 10 knots achieved with an electric motor drawing power from batteries topped up by solar.

The purpose of the boat is to collect oceanographic data, with sensors on board collecting information on marine mammals, ocean plastics, sea-level mapping and maritime cybersecurity.

See and avoid

The sheer size of some autonomous boats, and the astonishing speed of Artemis’s ASV, highlights the need for safe navigation. Such vessels carry a plethora of collision avoidance systems. While AIS technology has revolutionised collision avoidance over the last decade, it is not universally adopted among fishing vessels or yachts.

Inshore, where marine traffic is at its most dense, many dayboats will lack even a radar reflector. Other solutions, therefore, were required.

Mayflower, computing giant IBM’s autonomous vessel. The 15m boat is scheduled for a maiden voyage Atlantic crossing in April 2021. Photo: Tom Barnes

On Mayflower , computing giant IBM has installed its PowerAI Vision technology to crunch the inputs from onboard cameras that use both normal and infrared light.

In the development phase, so-called ‘deep learning’ is enabling the computer to spot navigational hazards from buoys to floating debris.

This complements radar and laser range-finding to help the boat’s software decide on the best tactic for avoidance. “We’re testing the system, but it is designed to be COLREG compliant and should spot things as small as a man in a rowboat and be able to avoid it,” said Brett Phaneuf, co-director of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship project.

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“It is programmed to detect and identify all manner of marine objects from many types of ships and boats, to buoys and kayakers. It understands how they behave and can predict movement and act to navigate in and around them.”

In principle there’s no limit to the number of objects it can track. But in the greatest traffic areas inshore, there will be a high bandwidth data link which will enable a human to step in to make decisions for the Mayflower if necessary. “There will always be a low-bandwidth satellite connection so that we may assist the vessel should it ask for help. Its prime directive is ‘don’t hit anything’,” added Phaneuf.

The maiden voyage has been postponed until mid-April 2021, when Mayflower will attempt to become one of the first full-sized autonomous ships to cross the Atlantic. Once the technology is proven, it has myriad potential uses.

Autonomous technology means a single landbased captain could eventually be in command of thousands of tonnes of shipping all around the world. Photo: Rolls-Royce

The race is on to develop commercial vessels with no humans aboard, only remote oversight from someone in a control room keeping an eye on dozens of vast container ships. Rolls-Royce was looking into just this before it sold its marine division to rival Kongsberg.

The company believes the first steps towards using remote-controlled coastal ships will be taken in the middle of this decade, with fully autonomous vessels coming at least 10 years after that. “Autonomous shipping is the future of the maritime industry,” explained Mikael Mäkinen, former president of Rolls-Royce’s marine division. “As disruptive as the smartphone, the smart ship will revolutionise the landscape of ship design and operations.”

The military, too, hope to use the technology to remove vulnerable humans from tedious or dangerous frontline duties, including surveillance. The Royal Navy has earmarked £184m to develop crewless minehunters.

The US Navy has already completed a trial that saw one of its Ghost Fleet Overlord vessels navigate from the Gulf Coast to California through the Panama Canal without incident.

“During this voyage, the vessel travelled over 4,700 miles, 97% of which was in autonomous mode – a record for the program,” reported Josh Frey, spokesman at the Department of Defense.

Small scale autonomous boats

There is also a growing fleet of smaller autonomous craft that can gather a wide range of data. These include the Wave Glider from Liquid Robotics, a 3.05m craft that generates power to operate from 192W of solar panels and a submarine element that harvests wave motion.

As it weighs 155kg and moves at 1.3 knots, the Liquid Robotics team doesn’t consider it to be a navigational hazard. “The Wave Glider is very small and therefore is the one who needs to get out of the way of any other boats,” marketing director Leigh Martins told me. “So, our software uses AIS for vessel detection and avoidance to stay safe.”

Submarine propulsion element of the Wave Glider. Photo: Wave Glider

Two craft closely resembling the Wave Glider were discovered washed up on the Scottish coast without their trailing submarine elements.

Meanwhile, the Sailbuoy under development by the Norwegian firm Offshore Sensing is designed to glance away from collisions.

It measures 2m and weighs 60kg, and its sole means of avoiding collisions are the words ‘Keep Clear’ stencilled onto the balanced wingsail that propels it. “Our solution to this is to make it withstand collisions on the open ocean,” explained CEO David Peddie. “A small vessel like the Sailbuoy does not present any danger to other traffic.”

The company’s website features a video of the Sailbuoy being run down by a small freighter during testing, then righting itself thanks to its heavy keel before bobbing clear.

Sailbuoy is designed to glance away from collisions. Photo: Sailbuoy

These craft are designed to survey their environment, and can hold station like a buoy or travel slowly along a predetermined route.

It has proven a robust approach: Sailbuoy became the first autonomous sailing vessel to successfully cross the Atlantic in the World Robotic Sailing Championship last year.

Saildrone takes a different approach for their autonomous boats. Its Explorer vehicle is larger – 7m LOA, with a 2.5m draught and a displacement of 0.75 tonnes. At this scale, a more robust approach to collision avoidance is required.

While it also uses AIS to spot other vessels at sea, each Saildrone is constantly under the supervision of a human back at mission control in Alameda, California.

Saildrone has also scaled their design up to a hefty 72ft ‘unmanned surface vehicle’. The Surveyor is equipped with deep-sea surveying equipment capable of scanning down to around 7,000m depth, and has an air draught of 18m.

Like its smaller cousins, there is a human in remote control of the boat at all times, to avoid collisions. But Surveyor also bristles with cameras, images crunched by an onboard processor to identify other vessels.

The company plans to put a fleet of 1,000 USVs onto the world’s oceans for a range of missions, from weather monitoring and gathering oceanographic data to patrolling border waters for smuggling and illegal fishing.

Weather spies

One of the most exciting features for sailors will be the real-time weather information autonomous boats can deliver.

Trimtab-controlled wingsail on Saildrone. Photo: Patrick Rousseaux Jenn Virskus/Saildrone

Saildrone founder Richard Jenkins grew up sailing in the Solent, and his company supplied a super-detailed forecast for Cowes Week in 2019, based on publicly available predictions enhanced with ‘secret’ local measurements taken by a Saildrone.

The result was a forecast with a high 200m resolution. In the end the uses for autonomous boats will be as myriad as those for satellites but, as with any new technology, there can be dangers, warns Luc Jaulet, robotics professor at France’s ENSTA engineering school, which is developing the Vaimos autonomous vessel.

As the concept becomes commonplace, the world will have to create suitable rules to keep the oceans safe. “The technology is basically ready, we just have to work out the legislation and then invest in it,” says Professor Jaulet.

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In-Boom Furling: Five Systems

Our last good look at in-boom furling systems was in the August 1, 1998 issue, when we liked both ProFurl and Leisure Furl, giving the edge to the latter despite its greater cost. The recent introduction of Schaefer’s new in-boom system gives us an excuse to revisit the subject and the systems in the field.

From the outset we’d acknowledge that with each passing year, sailhandling systems get more and more refined and efficient—never mind the days of footropes and gaskets, of one hand for the headsail and one for yourself during routine jib changes.

Even so, the mainsail remains a challenge. Stacking systems, lazy jacks, the Dutchman, in-mast furlers… all contribute their share of convenience and control, but none has proven to be the answer. Stowing, furling, and reefing the main is still a sizable chore, especially as the size of your boat increases. And, as always when we attempt to conquer the considerable forces of wind and wave by mechanical means, we tread a fine line between convenience and chaos.

Background In the late ’80s, Hood Systems introduced the Stoboom, and rolling the sail inside the boom became an option. More affordable and less risky than furling the main inside the mast, these boom furlers were a big hit. However, the newly-engineered hardware proved to be more complicated and ultimately less convenient than it looked. It was, according to one owner who sailed a Hunter 42, “the costliest consumer mistake I ever made.” 

The sail entered and exited the Hood boom through a narrow slot in the top of the tube. For that and several other reasons Stobooms proved  jammable. They were also  fickle in terms of boom angle, and costly in terms of luff chafe. Hood tried education (a special aftermarket owner’s manual) and hand-holding (extensive customer service) before eventually pulling the Stoboom off the market. “However,” says Paul Boyce of Hood Yacht Systems, “we’re still involved in in-boom furling with hydraulic systems fitted to larger boats, most of which are in Europe.”

The advantages of in-boom furling that prompted Hood’s “noble experiment” have not disappeared with Stoboom. Compared with in-mast furling, the boom-based systems weigh less and keep weight lower. Probably the most significant selling point of a sail that lives in the boom, however,  is its shape. In-mast furlers require roachless, high-aspect triangles, thus reducing mainsail area, distorting ideal shape, and lessening draft control. We’ve talked with sailmakers, and most peg the overall performance loss that you’ll pay for the convenience of in-mast furling at 20% or worse. With a boom-furling system you can assure yourself of a powerful modern sailplan with plenty of roach, with the additional bonus of being able to use full-length battens to help control sail shape and reduce flogging.

There are other plusses—freedom from reefing-line clutter, variable sizing potential, automatic sail-covering, and the ability to retain your original spar, to name a few—but to us the most telling difference is safety: If an in-mast furler jams it’s probable that someone will need to go aloft to free it. Until then, you’ll be stuck with a hoisted mainsail in what may be exactly the wrong conditions. A jam in the boom can be addressed from on deck. If all else fails, just drop the sail as you would a normal main and furl it on the boom instead of inside.

But boom furling has plenty of detractors. Butch Ulmer, veteran sailmaker from City Island, NY, feels cautious about it: “The geometry still needs to be worked out. Big roaches drive battens forward. Overcoming that friction isn’t easy and it’s certainly not automatic.”

We asked the owner of a 73-footer who undertook a complete and costly refit why he hadn’t put a boom furler aboard. “I don’t need a $20,000 sailcover,” he replied.

Peter Harken, whose company makes headsail furling systems, said “We haven’t gotten into in-boom furlers because we think there’s a better way. We may be a bit prejudiced, but we feel that the batt-car system we’ve devised is the safest, surest, easiest way for getting a sail up and down easily and when you really need it. I  can just about guarantee those cars won’t jam, and you can’t say that about anybody’s boom-furler. Most of these systems work most of the time, but when you really need it, give me something that’s simple and foolproof.”

The In-Boom Furling Field Today there are five in-boom systems on the market. We’ve sailed them all, noting design, construction, and performance. Given the conditions, we did our best to see how each delivers on the promise of boom furling. And at what price?

One overall conclusion is that, while Stoboom may have spoiled the boom-furling parade for lots of sailors, today’s systems really work. We put the gear through paces that occasionally created problems, but those snags never kept us from executing our set/reef/reset/douse evolution.

Schaefer and John Mast have relatively narrow openings in the top of their booms, but among the others there’s a trend toward open-topped extrusions.

You can still hold the boom up with a topping lift while rolling the main in, but all the systems we saw used a fixed, solid vang to do the job.

While you can get by without power winches, the whole process of setting and reefing, especially singlehanded, is easier if your winches have power. This is not to say that there isn’t a certain swashbuckling appeal in rolling the sail with one hand cranking the self-tailer and the other easing the halyard (keeping good tension for a nice tight roll).

Though they share the same basic idea, the five systems are significantly different. So are the companies that produce them. Leisure Furl has been around since the early ’90s, and its track record and testimonials are impressive. Schaefer Marine, a well-established hardware company, on the other hand offers a new system born of three years of design and development, but without much time in service. ProFurl engaged in extensive aerodynamic testing and material analysis before introducing a boom-furler just over three years ago. The big French company with dealers in 52 countries has since been energetic in promoting boom-furling to both the general public and among sailmakers.

Furlboom (“designed and built in Australia by Aussie yachtsmen to suit our rugged sailing conditions”) has had a varied career and is now built and  sold by the recently-formed Yachting Systems of America in Costa Mesa, CA. Like Leisure Furl, the company has concentrated efforts on centralizing manufacture and now offers a system that is entirely American-made.

The John Mast (JM) Hi-Low Reefer is imported from Denmark by Lars Pedersen of Bente Trading Company, Mercer Island, WA. Pedersen has long been a boom-furling zealot; he worked with the Danish mastmaker to develop the system. Over 1,500 boom-furlers have been  sold in Europe since 1990.

Leisure Furl Over a decade ago New Zealand sparmaker Don Baverstock first came out with his roll-up system. Today KZ Marine, for whom Baverstock is a consultant, claims that “over 85 % of the new boats launched in New Zealand have our booms.” Says Bill Hanna at Forespar, US manufacturer of Leisure Furl, “Our system began with bigger boats and has evolved into boats closer to the everyday as it has gone along. The point is, we’ve been dealing with loads that are very significant right from the outset.”

Click here to view Leisure Furl images .

The first thing you notice about the Leisure Furl system is that the boom is virtually topless, with a wide “gutter” covered by a clever sliding sail cover. It has an attractively tapered silhouette and affords the convenience of letting you see and service the innards. The two key elements in the furler, however, are its “through-the-mast” drive shaft and the universal joint that joins it to the mandrel at the gooseneck. The “free-floating” universal means maximum power can be applied to rolling the sail. (Leisure Furl is the only manufacturer to use a universal; the other four systems rely on drum drives).

“We found it incredible that we could furl downwind in 50 knots in Bass Strait in the Sydney-Hobart Race,” reports one user.

Chuck Poindexter (Sound Rigging, Essex, CT) has installed 14 Leisure Furl units. “I was surprised to learn when we had a naval architect do the calculations that the drive shaft actually strengthens the mast…by 11% to be exact. When I first got involved it was because a customer wanted me to survey the gear on a boat that had made one and a half circumnavigations. It had a Leisure Furl. I ‘dissected’ the universal and it was perfect.”

Other components include a foot groove halfway from tack to clew. It captures a short bolt rope on the middle third of the sail, holding it to the mandrel. With a loose-floating tack and two-part clew pendant you can roll the sail (similar to the first rolls of a custom-luff headsail) so that the middle rolls in while tack and clew stay loose. What this gives you, we soon realized, was a flattening reef that offers an elegant range of draft control by adjusting the furling line while keeping the halyard tight.

A significant difference between systems is how they attach to the mast. Leisure Furl uses a conventional luff tape, captive in a “self-aligning” feeder that leads to a fixed luff groove. Dr. Robert Leaf, one of the first Americans to put Leisure Furl on his boat, had a big problem “chewing up luff tapes to the tune of three or four a season.” Cutting sails to minimize “pullback” and new, tougher luff tapes seem to have solved the problem.

“It’s how the sail drops at the tack,” Poindexter says. “If it drops right onto the mandrel you’re fine. I’ve been impressed that Leisure Furl has continued to evolve and improve.”

With halyard tension and boom angle you can control how your sail rolls onto the mandrel to a large degree.

Leisure Furl’s chafe problems at the tack seem to be its biggest Achilles Heel, and one to which sailors can address themselves as they learn their systems.

Leisure Furl is moderately encouraging about retrofitting your old mainsail to suit the system, but we wonder if it isn’t something of a false economy to marry top-of-the-line furling gear with a recycled sail, given the critical nature of how the sail fits and is reinforced. Because of the number of components, relationships, and variables, we think Leisure Furl’s “riggers only” installation scheme makes sense, too.

John Mast Hi-Low Reefer This reefer is the departure point from which the others have developed. The main idea at its inception was to make boom furling easy and accessible. Judging by the more than 1,000 boom furlers now afloat in Europe, it worked. The Hi-Lo gooseneck bracket is adjustable, and job one is mounting it to your mast.  The boom is open at its forward end for sail access and transfer. The sail’s bolt rope is inserted in a flexible PVC luff track, which can be fitted to the mast in different ways. The system is simple and works well, but it does not appear as solid as its rivals. (Even the furling drum looked somewhat undersized to us.) When we rolled in a reef (using a handheld electric winch grinder) a pleat formed along the boom. Rolling the sail out to re-reef did the trick, but the full-length battens pushed forward of the mast track and created more friction than we thought reasonable.

Click here to view John Mast Hi-Low images .

With the John Mast and the other in-boom reefers it’s best to reef down to a full-length batten, which can then help support the foot of the sail. Being incompressible, it acts like an outhaul to keep the cloth stretched well aft. “Infinite” reefing between battens is discouraged.

Schaefer Marine Fred Cook at Schaefer says, “We’ve studied some of the problems associated with boom furlers for quite some time and tried to come up with answers.”

To reduce friction the company’s new design incorporates four bearing races, two at either end of the boom. Made of Torlon, the bearings require no lubrication and are meant only to be flushed occasionally with fresh water. Hoisting the sail by hand felt significantly easier than with any of the other systems.

Click here to view Schaefer Marine images .

To handle the transition between the mandrel and the mast groove Schaefer developed a unique and practical  “sugar scoop” guidepiece. While we tested only in medium (12-15 knot) air, it seemed superb at sliding the sail back and forth from mandrel to luff groove.

The drum is mounted on the after end of the boom and worked via a single control line. The gooseneck pivot pin is hefty and made from 316-stainless bar stock. We wondered if the luff groove, a UV-resistant polymer, was as sturdy as the rest of the unit, but from the flogging that we put it through on our test sail it seems ready to withstand realistic abuse.

The track articulates with the boom, and this makes power-reefing (without completely depowering the sail) possible.

It’s good seamanship to take the strain off sail and gear by luffing the sail and/or bringing the boat into the wind when it’s time to reef or douse your mainsail. In a race, or due to navigational needs, however, this isn’t always possible. With the Schaefer system (and all others except ProFurl) you can reef without totally depowering the sail if you must. We think that adds to a system’s versatility and tolerance for error.

ProFurl ProFurl puts its furling drum (very similar to a headsail furler) at the forward end of its open-topped boom. ProFurl’s other salient feature is its  articulating luff track mounted aft of the mast. Positioned to pick up and deliver the luff tape directly from the boom, this set-up has proven chafe-free. According to tests  conducted at France’s Research Center for Nautical Architecture and Industry, the structure actually increases mainsail efficiency by energizing the airflow over the sail.

Click here to view ProFurl images .

As with all of the mainsail furlers, the angle between mast and boom (or tack angle) is critical. Like most of its competitors, ProFurl specifies an angle of “about 87 degrees.” We found that this precision wasn’t absolutely necessary. If the boom is cocked up a bit more than perpendicular it pulls the sail aft and helps it lie smoothly in the boom. Lower the boom end, however, and the sail will bunch at the forward end of the boom, leading it to jam.

ProFurl provides a mechanical vang with a limiting wire: Release the vang and it sets the boom at the right height for furling. Reef the sail, then trim on to adjust vang tension for shape control.

We did all of that, and were rolling a reef in when, in an effort to stop some of the sail’s considerable flogging, we took just the slightest tension on the mainsheet. The sail immediately bulged larger at the forward end of the mandrel until it would no longer roll. We reset and re-reefed with no problem, but the incident made us mindful of  the delicate balance involved in boom furling.

Retrofitting your old sail is possible. One sailmaker advises, however, to “throw out the ProFurl formula for dealing with luff curve. Anything greater than two inches of luff round is too much, period.”

ProFurl USA in Fort Lauderdale says installation of its unit is “relatively simple.” Their elaboration: “An owner with some mechanical savvy and a rivet gun can do it himself, but it takes 16 man-hours and some work aloft.”

ProFurl has recently gone to ball-bearing sheaves, and wire halyards can now be used with the systems, which come with a three-year warranty.

Furlboom One of the secrets of this furler is the way it’s built. “We have gusseted corners that make our entire extrusion structural,” says Dougal Johnson at YSA. “That lets us build a lighter, smaller boom that is still more than strong enough to do the job.”

The Furlboom drive mechanism is mounted on the after side of the mast and connected via a drive chain to the mandrel. We’ve heard of one of these chains failing, and think that provision for a manual backup would improve the system. An excellent feature, and one shared with Leisure Furl, is a locking mechanism that takes the strain of holding the sail in place once the sail is set (or reefed). This ratchet engages under spring tension and is released by a trip line controlled from the cockpit.

Click here to view Furlboom images .

Like most of the other systems, Furlboom employs a claw inside the boom. This guides the sail, both coming and going, and helps to assure a uniform roll. This is one of the several design features that enables Furlboom to handle rigs with considerable pre-bend (up to 8 inches, according to Johnson).

Like many of the systems we looked at, this one has had success on the race course. Johnson points to a Catalina 470 that came in fourth in class in the recent Ensenada Race. Toby Ritter, who took us for a demo sail aboard Tiger Too in Long Island Sound, raced  his Furlboom to Bermuda. However, when you see the slick “automatic” sail cover that you can slide into place once the sail is put to bed, it underscores the fact that you can’t knock boom furlers for cruisability.

Conclusions The thing we liked least about in-boom furlers is the intimidating welter of controls, prohibitions, and caveats that go with them. There are plenty of reports of furlers gone bad, despite the reasonable efforts of their owners. In any case, sailors should be free to explore their limits and develop mastery of them without undue fear of expensive failures.

The thing we liked most was the amount of research and development talent that this rolling target has attracted. Chart the progress from Stoboom to the present and you’ve got a record of innovation and clever design that makes the marine industry look pretty smart.

It’s hard to assign ratings to systems we’ve only evaluated short-term, and not in conditions that might demonstrate the survival of the fittest. But here are some basic assessments:

The John Mast reefer is an older design, and the company has yet to establish an aggressive sales presence in North America. Its unit for a maximum P (mainsail hoist) of 42 feet is $6,850. This includes a boom vang, but not a sail.

ProFurl gets high marks for convenience and quality. A 42-foot P unit retails for $7,920, including a solid vang and boom brake.

Schaefer’s promising unit looks like it will fill the need for a simpler system that people with small to mid-sized boats can use and afford. A reefer to accommodate up to a 44-foot P retails for $7,500. The boom vang is not included.

We think that Furlboom is an excellent value at $7,250 for a 42.6 P length sail, despite the fact that the boom vang is no longer included.

Leisure Furl still strikes us as the most-rugged, best-proven unit. To match up to a 50-foot luff length you will need to pay $9,300. Installation, boom vang, and a new sail will boost that price a lot. If you’re willing to pay the freight, that reefer will render good service and excellent convenience, but our feeling is that Leisure Furl’s competitors have closed the gap and make attractive alternatives.

Contacts— John Mast Hi-Lo, Bente Trading Co., P.O. Box 1621, Mercer Island WA 98040; 206/232-6156; www.johnmast.com . Leisure Furl, Forespar Products Corp., 22322 Gilberto, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688; 949/858-8820; www.forespar.com/catalog/systems/LeisureFurl/leisurefurl.htm . FurlBoom, Yachting Systems of America, 350 Kalmus Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626; 714/437-9600; www.furlboom.com . ProFurl, 401 N.E. 8th St., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33304; 954/760-9511; www.profurlusa.com . Schaefer Marine, 158 Duchaine Blvd. New Bedford, MA 02745; 508/995-9511; www.schaefermarine.com .

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I have a 1982 sailboat (Classis 35, based in Rome, Italy) with an equally old Hood Stoboom. Except that it’s different from the one you describe: the sail does not furl inside the boom but around it. Were there different models. Incidentally, it works fine, you just insert the handle in the endless furler and roll the sail down while slowing the hailyard with your other hand to maintain some tension in the sail. With the autopilot you can furl the sail single-handed in a couple of minutes or less. I suppose there are some disadvantages with ’round the boom’ furlers since they are so uncommon and would like to hear about them.

Ooops, just realized the article is from 20 years ago. Who am I talking to?

Well, you’re talking to a guy in Maine…..but I didn’t write this article. I was referred to it by friends in the Cape Dory Association because I asked about their experiences with either in-mast or in-boom furlers. I’m thinking of putting some such rig on my Cape Dory 36.

I can make a comment, however, about your own experience. The Pierson Vanguard 33 had a mechanical boom furler rig available as far back as 1963. The current owner, who inherited the boat from her father and has sailed it all those years, said her father never used it….not has she. They both preferred to wrestle the sail down in the traditional manner. Great for the young folks….but I’m 76, and hoping to sail, sometimes singlehanded, for 15 more years.

Hi Jim, and thanks for replying. You don’t say what their problem was, perhaps it depends on the model. As I said, the Stoboom, or at least my Stoboom, contrary to what the article says, does not roll inside the boom but around it making it much less likely to jam. At least mine never does and reefing or pulling down a snap, you just turn the handle and it’s done, no need to pack the sail as the boom moves back and forth under you. I’m sure they must have some modern equivalent but I don’t know about it. Congrats on sailing single-handed.

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Autopilots are more than just a luxury. They keep you safe, by keeping the boat on course. But what are the best sailboat autopilot systems?

October 17, 2023

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The best choice is a system that has multiple sensors built into the device itself. You want something that can detect wind direction and speed, water conditions and the boat's position from GPS signals. Raymarine, Garmin, Furuno and Simrad make quality autopilot systems that include these features.

Sailboats are wonderful recreational vessels. They provide a relaxing way to spend time on the water, and also allow you to explore new places all over the world. The problem is that they can be hard to maneuver when there's no autopilot system in place. If you want your sailboat adventures to run smoothly, then it's important that you find a reliable autopilot system for your boat!

If you are in the market for a new sailboat autopilot system, then it can be difficult to figure out which one is best. There are many different brands and models that all have their benefits. In this article, our team of experienced sailors will help you determine which autopilot system is best for you.

Table of Contents

‍ 1. Raymarine ST1000 Plus Tiller Pilot

The  Raymarine ST1000 Plus Tiller Pilot  has been around for a while. In fact, it can be considered as the older brother of the ST8002. And if you compare this one to its younger sister, only one word comes to our mind - "performance." Where the newer model was said to produce better results, it turns out that his much older brother (ST1000) is much more effective in terms of performance and features!

So, what's so special about this Tiller Pilot?

First, let us think, why do we need a device like this at all? As boating enthusiasts, we are always looking for new gadgets which can make our boating experience more interesting, easier, or just plain better. So, there are times when it gets quite difficult to handle the boat, especially in windy conditions. That's where a Tiller Pilot comes in handy as it can take over the steering wheel job for you, allowing you to relax and enjoy your sailing trip.

Now, there are many different Tiller Pilots on the market, but we believe that Raymarine ST1000 Plus is one of the best out there. It is simple to use and very reliable, plus it comes with some really neat features which make it stand out from the crowd. One of these features is its ability to hold course even in strong winds and cross currents. This is thanks to its patented Gyro-Compass technology, which ensures precise navigation at all times. So, if you're looking for a quality Tiller Pilot for your boat without breaking the bank - you can't go wrong with this one.

It can handle NMEA data from a variety of sources, such as radar, GPS receiver, wind instrument, and even autopilot interface. So, you can see that it's not just a steering control unit but also an onboard computer with built-in sensors and a GPS receiver.

Furthermore, the AutoTack feature makes the ST1000 Plus a very versatile piece of equipment. With just a touch of a button, it can execute a tack or jibe, making it very easy for you to change course.

It is compatible with most boats out there, so you don't have to worry about compatibility issues too much. But one thing we noticed during our review was the lack of internal navigation charts, which means that you cannot use this Tiller Pilot as a standard Chartplotter unless you connect an external device or buy additional software for this purpose. Despite this drawback, we believe that Raymarine ST1000 Plus is the best Tiller Pilot for your boat available on the market right now!

In conclusion, the Raymarine ST1000 Plus Tiller Pilot is a great piece of kit that will make your sailing trips much more enjoyable. It is simple to use, reliable, and comes with some impressive features. So, if you're looking for a quality Tiller Pilot that won't break the bank - the Raymarine ST1000 Plus is definitely worth considering!

• Power supply: 12V systems
• Weight: 3.4 lbs
• Absolute Voltage Range: 10 to 16V DC
• Connections: NMEA 0183 input | SeaTalk
• Max displacement: 6600 lbs
• Easy to use
• Ideal for tiller-steered sailboats
• Can handle strong winds and currents
• Built-in Gyro-Compass makes steering much easier
• Safe to use when sailing in narrow channels
• No internal navigation charts (you need an additional device)
• Warranty can be improved (two years)
• A tad heavy

2. Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot

The  Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot  is a budget-friendly autopilot that is perfect for small to medium-sized sailboats (up to 35 ft). It is very easy to use and comes with all the features that you would expect from a quality autopilot. But what we really liked about this autopilot was its price point. It is one of the most affordable autopilots on the market, yet it still offers great value for money.

The TP10 is a basic tiller pilot that doesn't come with many bells and whistles. But what it does offer is simplicity and reliability - two things that are essential for any autopilot. It is very easy to install and can be up and running in minutes. And once it's installed, you can just set it and forget it - the TP10 will take care of the steering for you.

The simplicity of this autopilot extends to its design as well, since it features a mix of cutting-edge technological software and simplicity. It also features a five-button display, making it easy to control even in difficult sailing conditions.

According to Simrad, the precision steering on this autopilot system is so good that it can handle currents and winds of up to 10 knots! We didn't test this claim (we don't know how it could, to be honest), but we can confirm that the TP10 Tillerpilot works great for a variety of uses - from docking and navigation to tight channel maneuvering. It is a truly versatile piece of equipment that will provide you with many hours of enjoyment on the water.

And did we mention it is super quiet? Yes, the TP10 is nearly silent - it will make your sailing trips much more enjoyable since you won't have to listen to a loud engine or autopilot noises. And if you're into fishing, then this is just another reason for getting the TP10.

But there are some downsides as well - one of them being its lack of advanced features. If you're looking for an autopilot that can handle sophisticated sailing maneuvers, then the TP10 is not for you. But if you're just looking for a basic autopilot to help you steer your boat in windy conditions, then the TP10 is a great option.

Another downside is that it's not suitable for larger sailboats (above 35 ft) and that its warranty could be better. But despite these small drawbacks, we believe that the Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot is still one of the best autopilots on the market.

Overall, if you're looking for a reliable autopilot for your sailboat - one that doesn't cost an arm and leg - the Simrad TP10 Tillerpilot Complete Review is definitely worth considering! It is affordable, yet it still offers impressive functionality and performance. And while it's not as fancy as its competitors, there's no doubt in our mind that it gets the job

• Power supply: 12 V system
• Weight: 5 lbs
• Absolute Voltage Range: 12V DC
• Connections: N/A
• Max displacement: 10000 lbs
• One of the quietest autopilot systems on the market
• Reliable and easy to use
• Low power consumption
• Accurate steering
• Limited to small and medium-size boats
• Lack of advanced features
• Warranty can be improved

3. Raymarine EV-100 p70 Wheel Pilot Pack

The  EV-100 Wheel Pilot  is one of the most advanced autopilot units available right now, thanks to its unique technology, which allows it to steer accurately even in strong currents and winds. And if that's not enough, you can always rely on its six different types of alarms, which let you know when course deviation is too high!

As for its installation process, it's not the simplest one on the market but still not too bad either. You will need to download the manual from the official website, but after that, it should take you no more than 30 min to have everything up and running! Of course, this depends on your previous experience as well - if you're an expert DIYer, then installing an autopilot won't be much of a problem for you.

Once it's installed, you'll be able to take advantage of its many features. The p70 autopilot is very easy to use and has an intuitive display which makes it perfect for tight maneuvering or docking in difficult conditions. It also comes with wireless remote control, so you can easily adjust the autopilot while sailing.

The EV1 Sensor Core is the heart of this autopilot system, and it ensures maximum accuracy while steering. It can be connected to various sensors, such as wind direction, speed, and GPS, and it also has a built-in compass sensor. This means that you'll always have an accurate reading on where your boat's heading no matter what the conditions are like.

But what we liked best about the Raymarine EV-100 p70 Wheel Pilot Pack was its advanced steering capabilities. It can handle winds and currents up to 15 knots, making it perfect for more experienced sailors. And if you're looking for an autopilot that will last you for years to come, then the Raymarine EV-100 p70 is a good option - it comes with a solid build, and its design is simple yet surprisingly durable!

But that's not all - the EV-100 Wheel Pilot also comes with a waterproof housing unit which gives you the ability to read vital information even in harsh weather conditions. And since it works with all windlasses, you'll be able to use this autopilot system on your boat regardless of make or model.

The only downside we could find is that this autopilot system is quite expensive compared to some of its rivals. Also, it's not recommended for very large boats, meaning that it might not be the best choice for everyone.

To sum up, the EV-100 Wheel Pilot Pack is an advanced piece of equipment that's packed with features. It works well both in regular conditions and when facing stronger currents, plus it comes with an impressive set of sensors that give you accurate readings at all times. So if what you're looking

• Operating Voltage Range: 12V DC - 30V DC
• Power supply: 12V
• Connections: SeaTalk and SeaTalk 1 compliant with NMEA2000 marine networks.
• Max displacement: 16000 lbs
• Weight: 15 lbs (including wheel)
• 3-year warranty
• Very accurate
• Can handle strong currents and winds
• Waterproof housing unit
• Quite expensive compared to some rivals
• Not recommended for very large boats
• Installation process may be difficult for some

4. Garmin GHC 20 Marine Autopilot Helm Control

The  Garmin GHC 20 Marine Autopilot Helm Control  is a great addition to any boat, which is why it has become very popular with boaters in the US. In fact, since you can buy this system from official resellers, it's pretty hard not to find an autopilot system that works for your boat - after all, this piece of equipment can be customized according to your needs!

First of all, we have to say that the installation process is a breeze - most customers will be able to get this autopilot system up and running within an hour or two. The only part which might cause some issues is wiring your boat's battery cables, but even if you run into difficulties with this step, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube which you can check out.

Once it's installed, the GHC 20 Helm Control is a breeze to use. It features a straightforward menu which makes it easy to change settings or adjust your course. And unlike some autopilot systems on the market, this one doesn't require you to purchase any additional peripherals - it comes with its own built-in GPS sensor as well as an electronic compass. So if you're looking for an autopilot system that's ready to go out of the box, the GHC 20 is a good choice.

This incredible autopilot is built with a 4-inch display and can enhance your nighttime reading ability. This makes it ideal for sailors that prefer to tackle the seas at night.

The only downside of the GHC 20 is that it isn't suitable for sailboats that are over 40 feet in length. This means that it's perfect for smaller vessels, but you might need to consider an alternative option if you have a large boat. The battery life could also be better, but given the bang for buck this autopilot system offer, we're willing to look past these minor inconveniences.

To sum up, if you have a smaller boat, then the GHC 20 is one of the best autopilot systems on the market. It has an intuitive display, comes with its own built-in GPS sensor, and offers real-time navigation capabilities. So, if you want something that can enhance your sailing experience without breaking your bank balance, this product might be what you've been looking for!

• Display: 4″ Anti-Glare Color LCD Display
• Ports: NMEA2K
• Max Displacement: Boats up to 40 ft in length
• Operating Voltage Range: 9V to 32V DC
• Intuitive menu system
• 170-degree viewing angle
• Budget-friendly
• Ideal for night excursions
• Easy installation process
• Short battery life
• Not suitable for larger boats
• Warranty can be improved (2 years only)

5. Furuno NavPilot 711C

The  Furuno NavPilot 711C  is an autopilot system that's specifically designed for larger boats and yachts. It comes with a single-axis drive which makes it perfect if you want to control your boat's heading evenly while sailing at any speed.

As for its installation process, we have to say that this autopilot system is one of the easiest ones to get up and running. You will need to download the manual from the official website (if you're feeling generous, you can also provide them with some feedback!), but after that, you should be able to connect all cables without too many problems! As long as your previous experience installing electronics on a boat isn't very limited, you shouldn't run into difficulties during the process.

The NavPilot 711C also comes with a built-in GPS receiver which ensures that your boat's heading is constantly updated. Plus, it has many other features that make it perfect for larger vessels, such as connecting to up to three different sensors simultaneously. So if you're looking for an autopilot system that can handle any condition, then the Furuno NavPilot 711C is a good option.

The best thing about this autopilot system is its accuracy. According to Furuno, it is capable of offering real-time adjustments even in high-stress sailing conditions. Its self-learning algorithmic system is also a great feature that gives it one up on some of its rivals. And the NavPilot 711C comes with an impressive 3-D graphic that shows you how your boat's all set to sail!

Did we talk about its FishHunter Mode? This mode turns the NavPilot 711C into a powerful fishfinder that can help you locate schools of fish in no time.

Furthermore, the NavPilot 711C requires minimal manual helm input, making it perfect for long voyages. Plus, it provides great mileage efficiency, meaning that you won't be spending too much on gas during your trips. And since it works with up to 3 sensors simultaneously, you'll have a good chance of using this autopilot system even if you're missing some parts.

The only downside of this autopilot system is that it might be expensive compared to some rivals - especially since there's no option to buy accessories individually. The warranty period is also a bit shorter than we would have liked, but that's a small complaint compared to the overall quality of this system.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a reliable autopilot system that will last for years to come, then the Furuno NavPilot 711C is a good option - it was designed with larger boats in mind, and it has an impressive intuitive display. It also works very well even in harsh conditions, so if you want something versatile and accurate, you could certainly do worse than the Furuno NavPilot 711C!

• Power Supply: 12-24V DC
• Display: 4.1″ Color LCD
• Ports: CAN bus (NMEA2000): 1, NMEA0183: 2
• Weight: 4.1 lbs
• Easy installation
• Intuitive display
• Extremely accurate
• Great for larger boats
• Full of features
• Expensive compared to some rivals
• Short warranty period

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I'm Michael Moris. I've been sailing my whole life, and it has taken me to places I never imagined. From the Caribbean to Europe, from New Zealand to South America - there's nowhere that hasn't felt like home when you're on a boat!

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Connects to devices by Bluetooth

*requires Bluetooth 4.0

Controlled by SailBot App

SailBot products are controlled by the SailBot App available for free from the App Store and Google Play Store. Operation is extremely simple and convenient, and software is always up to date! New features are automatically added in app updates.

SailBot products are the only automated starting horns that allow you to edit your starting sequences with a built-in sequence editor! Choose from and edit many included ISAF sequences or create your own.

Connects by Bluetooth 4.0

Save your race committee's ears by placing SailBot outside of the boat cockpit. With long-range Bluetooth Low Energy, the unit can be placed anywhere on the boat and is easily controlled by the app on the iDevice.

SailBot is cross platform and our free app is available in both the App Store and Google Play Store. Click the badges here to go to your respective store.

Read all about our exciting Version 2.0 app in our blog post here .

The most flexible and advanced sailboat race starting horn

Audible signal hassles are a thing of the past. let your race committee focus on the on-water action and visual signals and leave the sail race start timing and audible signaling to your sailbot., sailbot makes it simple.

Sailbot is simply the most flexible and convenient way to automate the Race Committee audible signals at the start of any sailing race. It is an automatic sailboat race starter system consisting of our self-contained horn unit in conjunction with our free app running on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Sailing schools, yacht clubs, and sailing teams will love the ease of use and durability of construction. Compact, robust, reliable and ready for action; SailBot was designed from the ground up to be an integral part of any RC toolkit.

Make your Race Committee job easier by automating your starting sequences today! SailBot is a self-contained and portable unit that connects to your mobile device by Bluetooth technology. Horns are automatically fired at the proper time during a start sequence, freeing the RC to do other things.

• Long Battery Life
• iPhone 4S and newer
• Long-range Bluetooth Low Energy
• Battery level indicator in app
• Loud (135dB)
• Can be mounted remotely
• 100+ Start sequences per charge
• iPod Touch 5th gen and newer
• Simple Bluetooth connection with no passcode

SailBot Starter

Controlled by an App

SailBot is the only automatic sailboat race starting horn that offers custom start sequence editing and modification. Choose from one of the many included ISAF starting sequences, modify them or create your own. The options are limitless.

All software for controlling the horn is contained in the app on your phone or tablet so updates are automatic and your device is always up to date. Say goodbye to hard-wired sequences forever.

Placing the controlling software on a mobile device allows flexibility and future expansion that other solutions will never be able to match. Go ahead, install the free app from the App Store and Google Play now and see for yourself how easy it is to have perfect, effortless starting sequences!

Designed with Race Committees in Mind

With no pairing codes it could not be simpler to setup and go. Place the SailBot starter anywhere on your boat away from Race Committee ears, turn it on, open the app and tap "Connect" and you are ready to go!

You can choose from a number of predefined sequences or program your own. Watch this video to get an idea of how simple it really is to have perfect audible sequence signals.

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Cruise passengers stranded in ireland for three months after planning dream trip to sail the world.

Cruise passengers waiting to set sail on a round-the-world voyage have been left stranded for a staggering three months in Northern Ireland after a slew of infrastructure issues plagued the luxury liner.

The Villa Vie Residences’ Odyssey ship had been scheduled to depart Belfast back on May 30 for the first leg of a three-year cruise before problems were detected with its rudders and gearbox, BBC News reported .

The delays have meant some passengers have spent months living on the docked cruise ship — with no sail date in sight.

Dr. David Austin, who sold his house in Georgia to set sail, said he had long “stopped counting down” the days until the ship is finally ready.

“The payoff of seeing the world in this fashion is too great to feel too disappointed with each delay announcement,” he said.

“I was committed, having sold my house right before my arrival, and I’ve stayed committed to this adventure with every delay.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how many passengers were currently stuck living on the docked ship.

After first encountering the technical issues, the cruise liner sent the majority of passengers off on other cruises, or flew them home to wait for a new departure date.

Holly Hennessey, a Florida native, said she is among those who have unexpectedly “hunkered down” on board because she is traveling with her cat and is unable to come and go from Belfast while she waits for the ship to be ready.

“We can spend all day aboard the ship and they provide shuttle buses to get on and off,” Hennessey said. “We can have all of our meals and they even have movies and trivia entertainment, almost like cruising except we’re at the dock.”

Angela and Stephen Theriac, of Nicaragua, said they’ve already settled in with the locals due to the delays.

“We keep teasing we will apply for residency here in Belfast,” Angela said.

“We have eaten in every restaurant and had a Guinness in every pub,” her husband added.

The voyage, billed as the first round-the-world residential cruise, allows passengers to buy a cabin outright or pay as you go for the various legs of the three-year cruise.

The cost of a cabin ranges from $99,999 to $899,000, according to the cruise’s website.

A spokesperson for the cruise line told The Post that the issues stemmed from trying to reactivate a 30-year-old vessel – but they expect to finally set off as soon as next week.     

“Despite having to do major works such as the rudder stocks, major steel work and engine overhauls, we have persevered and are now in the last stages of departure,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“We expect a very anticipated successful launch next week where we will head to Bremerhaven, Amsterdam, Lisbon, then across the Atlantic for our Caribbean segment.” 

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