Browsing: autopilots

On Watch
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Captain Sets Autopilot, Leaves Helm, Boat Crashes

The captain of a fishing boat set the autopilot as it was heading out of the St. Marys River Channel south of Cumberland Island, Georgia, last June, and then went below to talk on his cell phone, leaving the helm unattended. A few minutes later, the 78-foot boat ran into the channel’s north jetty and subsequently sank, leaking more than 2,000 gallons of fuel and oil into the water. The National Transportation Safety Board just issued its report about the accident, concluding that “leaving the wheelhouse unattended is imprudent, especially when navigating areas like the St. Marys entrance, which included…

Cruising Life
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“Best & Brightest” New Autopilots

Autopilots are becoming almost essential equipment on new cruising boats, but how to choose the right one? To help you out, the Marine Electronics Journal asked manufacturers to single out their Best & Brightest autopilots for review. These are not necessarily the latest models, or those with the most features, but ones that are the most popular or technologically advanced. Here are the replies from Garmin, Simrad, Raymarine, ComNav, Furuno, Octopus, SI-TEX, and B&G: Garmin’s Reactor 40 hydraulic autopilot (pictured at top) keeps you on course at cruising speeds, minimizes heading error, reduces power consumption and more, so you can…

Cruising Life
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Crew Puts Boat on Autopilot. Falls Asleep. Lands in Cave

TowBoatUS San Diego responds to an incredibly strange distress call caused by a one-in-a-million missed waypoint: SAN DIEGO, Calif., Oct. 23, 2019 — “There are not many times I can say it after 30 years as a towboat captain, but this was a first,” says Capt. Rob Butler, owner of the TowBoatUS San Diego. Butler was describing his company’s recent response to a 26-foot power boat stuck inside a deep sandstone cave along a southern California cliff wall. Butler’s company is one of more than 300 locations across the nation that responds to over 70,000 requests annually for on-water assistance…

Cruising Life
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Furuno’s New Point-and-Shoot Autopilot: Just Aim It Where You Want To Go

Furuno has just developed a new handheld autopilot remote that lets you point where you want to go and the boat will take you there. It’s called the NavPilot-300 with Gesture Control, and it’s made for outboard-powered boats from 24 to 50 feet. You can see a video of it in action below. The key to the new NavPilot is the 4.1” Gesture Control remote with color LCD that lets you control the boat’s heading if you’re standing anywhere within 32 feet of the helm (and the processor). You hold a button in the middle of the remote, point it…

Cruising Life
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Autopilots 101: A User’s Guide

An autopilot is not exactly a necessity for a cruising boat, but it certainly makes life a lot easier. If you’re just doing local or occasional coastal cruising, you may not feel that you need one. If you’re starting the Great Loop, though, an autopilot would help on a lot of it – crossing Lake Michigan, for example, or heading outside in the ocean for major stretches of Florida, where staying inside, traveling along the Waterway, can mean major delays for bridge openings or slowdowns in manatee zones. Autopilots can vary greatly, as they need to match the boat’s individual…