Autopilot recommendations for F38

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1

Posted by ereiss (ereiss@…>)

I’m looking at a couple of F38 (shallow draft). Some don’t have auto
pilot. Does anyone have a unit to recommend (to be self-installed). I
have had great experience on current boat with ST4000 but I think such
a unit would be undersized at least according to Raymarine website
(put aside that they no longer make it).

Anything I should particularly inspect when looking at the boats?

Any issues with F36 to F38 conversions?

Thank you in advance for all your help.

Ed Reiss
future F38 owner.

2

Posted by Jacqui Macconnell (jacimac@…>)

HI!

My F36/38 was equipped with an ST7000 when I bought it. Still works,
still love it.
When we did an overall boat rewiring and electronics modification two
years back,
it didn’t seem to make sense to pull it. Electrics master agreed.

However, in moving other things from here to there, we needed a ST
(SeaTalk)
compatible cable of that vintage. I ended up buying a whole box of
that vinatge
systems on eBay, just to get the cable.

It’s left me with one or two extra, presumably working ST
autopliots.There’s a 4000.
There’s also a 7000. I love the one that’s on the boat now and was a
little suspicious
about parting with a perfect back-up unit, but the boat can only
gracefully accomodate
so many what-if redundant parts, so…

I took the entire box of spares down to Pacific Marine Chandlery,
here in Bellingham,
WA. 360 738-8535. Ask for the owner, Mike. It’s a well-regarded
second-hand chandlery.
He was going to survey the whole box lot. He can tell you what’s in
there, what
works, etc.

Normally I’d just make it available to you, but he’s a good
proprietor, a sailor’s resource,
and I already took the stuff to him. Sorry.

Of interest: my master marine electronics guy said that SeaTalk/
Autohelm was a parent
or predecessor company to RayMarine. Though we haven’t tested this
yet, he says that
the ST will “talk” to the CT1200 RayMarine GPS plotter we’d put in at
the nav station. B/C:
same company.

That could mean a Freedom owner running both could set way points
into the plotter
the night before, get up in the morning and raise the sails, activate
the plotter and the
good old ST7000, and sail on. Handlessly. Scandalous, I know, but we
do plan to try.

I don’t think there’s going to be much difference between the F36 or
38, but you should
know what my installer told me; apparently one needs to keep the
whole family of
instruments together, so they’ll communicate. And there is the issue
of difficulty about
compatible cables.

There are amazing Freedom techies on this board, they’ll say it in
better depth. But
I love my ST7000. Long may it live. And there are a some extras down
at Mike’s.

Best,
Jacqui MacConnell
SPARROW
1986 F36/38 #48

3

Posted by ereiss (ereiss@…>)

Thank you, Jacqui.

4

Posted by macks011 (macks02@…>)

I self-installed, on my F36, a Simrad Robertson below deck autopilot
with the HD long throw ram and a tiller arm from Edson. I located every
thing in the compartment behind the aft berth. The geometry of the
tiller arm/ram is critical so a mock-up is very helpful. Also, using
the tiller arm from Edson is neccessary for a number of reasons. 1, the
steering quadrant is not strong enough to take the kind of loading that
attaching the actuator would engender and 2. it give you a completely
autonomous steering system in addition to the wheel/cable and the
emergency tiller. If you are interested, I can dig up the system specs
and I have photos of the installation.


— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, “ereiss” <ereiss@…> wrote:

I’m looking at a couple of F38 (shallow draft). Some don’t have auto
pilot. Does anyone have a unit to recommend (to be self-installed). I
have had great experience on current boat with ST4000 but I think
such
a unit would be undersized at least according to Raymarine website
(put aside that they no longer make it).

Anything I should particularly inspect when looking at the boats?

Any issues with F36 to F38 conversions?

Thank you in advance for all your help.

Ed Reiss
future F38 owner.

5

Posted by Jim Demerest (jdemer@…>)

Agree with most of the comments except for “1, the steering quadrant is not strong enough to take the kind of loading that attaching the actuator would engender”. For my Raymarine linear arm drive I used a milled down inverted rudder stop and mounted it directly over the existing rudder stop on Paul Dennis’s recommendation. Paul supplied the modified rudder stop and a mounting bracket. It has been almost ten years and several trips from the Chesapeake to Southern New England and it’s still working.

Jim Demerest
F36/38 Lady of Remes

6

Posted by macks011 (macks02@…>)

I get that it works. I got the same recommendation from Paul when I
was researching my installation. Edson strongly warns against such an
installation and strongly advocates a seperate tiller arm of anyones
manufacture. The steering quadrant is cast aluminum and is not
designed for the shock loading of a mechanical or hydraulic actuator.
Also, Paul wanted a lot of money for his bracket. I had one made up
by a local shop for $100.00 and they did a beautiful job.




— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, “Jim Demerest”
<jdemer@…> wrote:

Agree with most of the comments except for “1, the steering
quadrant is not strong enough to take the kind of loading that
attaching the actuator would engender”. For my Raymarine linear arm
drive I used a milled down inverted rudder stop and mounted it
directly over the existing rudder stop on Paul Dennis’s
recommendation. Paul supplied the modified rudder stop and a mounting
bracket. It has been almost ten years and several trips from the
Chesapeake to Southern New England and it’s still working.

Jim Demerest
F36/38 Lady of Remes