Finally! An Autopilot!

In my opinion, an autopilot is the most important piece of equipment, next to an EPIRB, to have on a sailboat. To some it may be considered to be a "comfort item," but to me it's a requirement.


I have fantasized for years about getting something like the Norvane self-steering Windvane as it is my opinion that a servo-pendulum (that is, a non-electronic) system is the most fail safe way to go.


However, to install one I would have to give up having a swim ladder in the back of the boat and would have to be very careful dragging a dingy so I finally convinced myself that an electronic autopilot was the best choice.


Unfortunately, when you get into boat as big as Clarity (at 22,000 lbs), you can't just go the easy way and buy a wheel pilot like the Autohelm 4000 (now called a SmartPilot X-5) which work nicely for boats with displacement up to 16,500 lbs.


Therefore, effectively the only choice I had was to go with a hydraulic steering device. I settled on the ST70 SmartPilot X-10 Linear Drive System for Sailboats by Raymarine that I ordered today.