SELF STEERING for our OCEAN-GOING MONOHULL 😉 

Great tip thank you 😁

Your opinion on the autopilot is sensible, and sound on the face of it. It assumes that new is better, which seems obvious, but modern technology isn't necessarily always reliable, and the guarantee is no good to you mid-Pacific. I'm with Andy on trying to get the bulletproof, well-proven, highly sought-after Neco working. It may take a lot of tweaking to get it calibrated, and then it may still over-steer a bit and hunt a bit more than it should, but it will be a good, reliable long-term temporary solution. Edit: For the 100% confidence, if that's ever possible, close to it anyway, the unit Andy is now temporarily installing will no doubt be kept as backup. If the need should arise, he'll be already well practiced at swapping it in and out.

He has one.... they installed a new HYDROVANE unit not long after getting Melody settled in the marina for upgrades.

Amazon sells a kit with all different sizes. Very good connection and Waterproof butt connectors!!

Just ordered some Wirefly crimps on your recommendation that’s great

Aluminum and stainless steel is fatal in a marine environment.

Thanks Cliff; I'll ring you tomorrow for a catch up

True 😂

You're right there's lots to do. But the "Big Off" will be very tame. We will be sailing to the next town not the next continent, for several months, making our way very slowly and very safely from port to port. And let's face it people have set off across oceans with much less technology than we have and zero autopilot. I agree it's important for a family. But let's keep perspective. It's a luxury really to have all this technology and so long as the boat is seaworthy everything else like electric windlasses and autopilots is there to make life easier but the boat doesn't suddenly sink if you don't have them.

@SailingMelody I think you underestimate the value of a reliable autopilot. We sail with just two of us onboard. 37,500nm in the last 10 years. Life without the autopilot would have been very tough. You can't hand steer a boat in poor weather, hour after hour. Just dealing with the motion in poor weather, the lack of sleep makes it a chore. I can't imagine you trying to handsteer for hours with a wife trying to get some sleep and kids being sick. The autopilot is the third crew member that needs no sleep, never tires and steers a better course than anybody. We have a Windpilot self steering but there are times in big seas that we are always glad the autopilot can deal with all of it, when the Windpilot would be struggling. If you plan to sail far, doing multiple day passages, sorting out a good autopilot is an absolute priority, in my opinion.

@@timevans8223 oh I totally agree and I definitely don’t underestimate it at all. We have This basic system I’ve just cobbled together And The Ratheon system which we will figure out what’s wrong with it And The NECO system which I’m researching to sort And A tiller pilot on the hydrovane And The hydrovane it’s self. So please believe me when I say I fully appreciate the issue. I’m just saying that this little basic setup will at least give us the bare minimum while we sort the other stuff because self steering is SO important to me that I would rather have this than nothing and having layers and layers of redundancy are crucial for me: But my other point is, as you say, life without the autopilot would be Very tough. But the boat wouldn’t sink and yes it would be an extremely fatiguing thing to have to take shifts hand steering in bad weather. But baring in mind the following : We are setting off in two or three weeks and we are NOT going “out to sea” we are NOT planning big passages, we are NOT crossing biskay before this stuff is fixed. We are port hoping in mild weather and only making our way to the next port if the weather looks nice. Before we do anything more than day sailing from port to port I totally agree we need a VERY robust and reliable autopilot. But given the plan and time scale would you rather we : A) focus on the autopilot to the detriment of anchoring or reefing or electrical systems Or B) delay leaving the marina even to sail 5 miles to the next port for another year or two and be too frightened to go anywhere without a boat bristling with gizmos and gadgets. My priorities are 1. Hull not sinking. 2. Engine works. 3. Steering works. 4. Rig and sails work. 5. Kids are safe. And if that means the most we’re going to do is slowly hop along the coast doing 10 or 20 mile sailing days then frankly that’s fine with me. I FULLY understand the value of a reliable autopilot.

Wed love to but we don't have anywhere near the money for that kind of installation

We will do an update next week on steel Melody 😁

Didn't have my welder with me and it was closer to the engineering company than to go back home for my welder and handing a job over to them frees me up for other jobs

Yes we have a hydrovane two but need an Auto pilot too for when the hydrovane isn't suitable.

Wago do not recommend this.😊