[C320-list] Kudos to Simrad, shame on Raymarine

[sailorlew at aol.com]

?Last week I helped a friend bring his Tartan 37 from Amityville, NY(south shore of LI) to Huntington, NY(north shore of LI). The trip which is aproximately 80 miles long consisted of exiting Jone Inlet into the Atlantic Ocean, running west along the shore to New York Harbor, up the East River through Hell Gate(hit 12 knots riding the current) into Long Island sound going east to Huntington Harbor. The trip was quite enjoyable but this note is really not about the trip. When he bought the boat 5 years ago it came with a Navico autopilot that sometimes worked, & sometimes didn't work. This winter he sent the unit back to Simrad who had bought Navico, to see if it could be reapaired. Even though Simrad no longer manufactures any autopilots, they refurbished the unit for what I consider a very reasonable $200. Over the 12 hour trip it worked flawlessly, at one point needing a course correction in order to not hit a buoy that we had set course for 2 hours earlier. Consider this customer service compared to Raymarine who still makes autopilots that are similar to the 4000 that many of us have but are unable to have them repaired because Raymarine no longer supports this unit. Their suggestion, buy a new one. Shame on them.
Lew