[C320-list] Autopilot and instrument upgrade

[clburti at gmail.com]

Scott,

I am considering installing a linear AP on Commitment and one necessary bit of information that the article didn’t contain was the part number for the Edson tiller arm…do you have that information from your invoice?






Fair Winds
Chris Burti
Commitment
Catalina 320, #867





From: Scott Thompson
Sent: ‎Thursday‎, ‎June‎ ‎6‎, ‎2013 ‎4‎:‎17‎ ‎PM
To: 320





Chris, you have my permission. Regarding the photos, I uploaded hi-res 
photos to the web site. If you view the photos in high-res mode you 
should then be able to save them with full resolution. I just tried this 
using Firefox and the saved photo was 4000x3000 pixels, same as the 
original. To be clear, I took the following steps: (1) opened the album 
web page; (2) clicked on a thumbnail photo to display the larger view; 
(3) clicked on the photo again to open it in full resolution (at this 
point it more than fills the screen on my computer); right-clicked on 
the photo to select "Save Image As ..." dialog. The resulting file 
appears to be identical to the original, with full EXIF data from my camera.


On 6/6/2013 8:48 AM, Chris Burti wrote:
> Scott,
> May we publish this in Mainsheet? If so, please send  hi-res photos
> directly to me.
>
> On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 8:30 AM, Scott Thompson <surprise at thompson87.com> wrote:
>> It wasn't cheap. Our bill was almost $19K when all was added up, including
>> the governor's 6% and labor costs, and a few weeks of dock time at the yard.
>> That also included two new Navpods, all new transducers and wiring,
>> including networking (SeaTalkng, RayNet, NMEA2000) for future expansion such
>> as AIS or Sirius weather module. It's a bit difficult to break it down by
>> subproject since a lot of the labor and networking costs are common across
>> multiple instruments.  The breakdown is (roughly) $2K for the new
>> instruments and networking, $4.5K for autopilot parts, $3.3K for
>> chartplotter and GPS and related parts, about $1K for the new radio, remote
>> mic and additional networking to connect the VHF to the GPS, and for future
>> expansion. The rest was labor, taxes, and some misc installation materials.
>>
>> Note that we re-used the old wiring in the mast for the wind unit, which
>> means that I now have a spare unused cable. If we had to pull the mast to
>> redo the wiring it would have run more. I contemplated spreading this out as
>> several projects for different years, but once you start pulling new wires
>> to the Navpods you are best off doing it all at once. I balked at the price
>> in the first place, but we made a decision that the 320 is the perfect size
>> boat for us for the forseeable future, and so were willing to make the
>> investment. To put this in perspective, the initial estimates for just a
>> wheel pilot replacement were around $3.5K installed, and the below decks
>> linear drive installation would have been about twice that on a standalone
>> basis once you allocate a certain amount of the installation labor.
>>
>>
>> On 6/6/2013 2:26 AM, Tim Fleming wrote:
>>> Sweet setup Scott may I inquire as to some of the costs?
>>> Tim
>>> Ole'
>>> #928
>>>
>>> On Jun 5, 2013, at 2:47 PM, "Scott Thompson" <surprise at thompson87.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have posted some pictures on the web site of the new autopilot
>>>> installation on my 1999 boat "Surprise." I was looking to replace my tired
>>>> old wheel pilot unit that finally failed with a "Seatalk Error" that I
>>>> couldn't solve last year.
>>>>
>>>> The album can be found here:
>>>> http://www.catalina320.com/mediagallery/album.php?aid=274&page=1.
>>>>
>>>> This is a below-decks autopilot using the Raymarine Type-1 linear drive
>>>> unit. The drive is mounted to the port side of the rudder post on the
>>>> lateral bulkhead that separates the steering gear from the aft cabin. It is
>>>> bolted to a custom mounting plate on the bulkhead, which is through-bolted
>>>> to a backing plate inside the aft cabin, just above the internal access
>>>> hatch for the steering gear compartment. The only part of the system that is
>>>> above deck or exposed to the elements is the P70 control head at the helm
>>>> station. The X-10 course computer is mounted just outboard of the linear
>>>> drive on the port side. A rudder reference unit is mounted to starboard on
>>>> another custom bracket attached to the corner of the shelf above the fuel
>>>> tank. The fluxgate compass is mounted in the same location as the old one,
>>>> on a stringer over the center line of the bilge, between the galley sink and
>>>> head door.
>>>>
>>>> Some notes on the installation:
>>>>
>>>> The linear drive drives the rudder through an Edson tiller arm that
>>>> points forward when the wheel is centered. The arm is attached to the rudder
>>>> post just below the main steering quadrant, which is the only possible
>>>> location. There is just barely enough clearance for the tiller arm to swing
>>>> un-obstructed in this location. The installer had originally planned to
>>>> mount the drive on the underside of the swim platform, which is a common
>>>> location for installations on the 350 or 355. However the swim platform is
>>>> relatively low on the 320, making that arrangement impossible. The selected
>>>> mounting location on the lateral bulkhead seems plenty strong, however, with
>>>> the added benefit that no holes were needed through the deck or hull.
>>>>
>>>> Use of the linear drive requires limiting rudder swing to 35 degrees in
>>>> each direction. To achieve this, some small blocks were added to the rudder
>>>> stops, which are molded into the bottom of the deck just above the steering
>>>> quadrant, for those who didn't know. (I didn't know where they were until
>>>> this project.)
>>>>
>>>> In principle, both the drive unit and rudder reference unit should be
>>>> mounted in exactly the same plane (or a parallel plane) as the tiller arm on
>>>> the rudder. Since the 320 rudder post is not "vertical" (i.e. is tilted
>>>> relative to the bulkhead and other surfaces in the steering compartment), in
>>>> theory the mounting plates and brackets should have some compensation for
>>>> the angle of the rudder post. They do not, but everything still seems to
>>>> work OK. I did not measure, but the linear drive appears to be within 5
>>>> degrees of the correct plane, which is the outside tolerance for mounting
>>>> per the installation instructions.
>>>>
>>>> Sea trial calibration was very easy. We had to do some big circles to
>>>> swing the compass. Unlike older units, the new system alerts you if you are
>>>> turning too fast or slow. We got maximum deviation of just 4 degrees, which
>>>> is excellent. (It is a mystery to me how the computer figures this out.) The
>>>> computer can compensate for up to 15 degrees. Then we put the drive in
>>>> "autolearn" mode. After a few minutes of crazy Ivans it was done. The only
>>>> tweak to drive settings I made was to turn down the drive response from 5
>>>> (midpoint) to 4 in an effort to cut power usage a bit. The unit still works
>>>> fine on 4. Cutting it further to 3 caused poor course-keeping, I found.
>>>>
>>>> So how does it work?  Like a charm. The X-10 steers extremely well, even
>>>> with a following sea. No more snake-wake for Surprise. The drive is barely
>>>> audible from the cockpit. I can't hear it at all except when sailing in very
>>>> quiet conditions. It is freaky to watch it steer, since it silently makes
>>>> lots of the same small adjustments I would make. It's really nice having the
>>>> cleaner helm station without the old ST4000 drive wheel and motor. I suspect
>>>> the new system uses somewhat more power than the old unit, but that is part
>>>> of the tradeoff for getting better steering, since the rudder is more active
>>>> than with the old system, making more frequent but smaller adjustments.
>>>> There is very little friction in the system, and manual steering is very
>>>> light with the drive in Standby. It's also nice to not have to think about
>>>> the drive clutch when I switch between Standby and Auto, since that is
>>>> completely automatic.
>>>>
>>>> I do have a few minor complaints. As previously mentioned, I had to give
>>>> up a bit of rudder swing. That doesn't seem to be much of an issue so far.
>>>> The P70 control head has a general purpose color backlit LCD display with
>>>> all kinds of display customization and bells and whistles possible. However
>>>> it doesn't have as much contrast as the older units, especially with
>>>> sunglasses, and I need to keep the brightness set to 100% in sunshine. The
>>>> "graphical" display mode on the P70 does not match the pictures in the
>>>> manual, and is an extremely distracting and lame "rolling road" animated
>>>> graphic. A lot of this doesn't matter since the new e95 MFD chartplotter
>>>> that I installed at the same time is highly customizable to show whatever
>>>> you might want.
>>>>
>>>> We also replaced the speed, wind, and depth instruments and transducers
>>>> at the same time, added an external GPS antenna, and the previously
>>>> mentioned e95 chartplotter, all from Raymarine. (Raymarine is running a
>>>> promotion where I will receive an i70 multifunction display for "free" since
>>>> I purchased the e95. I don't know what I will do with that.) In general the
>>>> new instruments are similar to the old ST60 ones that they replaced.
>>>>
>>>> The e95 is my first chartplotter. Previously I used a hand-held Garmin
>>>> GPS76 unit on a bicycle handlebar mount above the instruments, with a
>>>> data/power cable interfaced to the autopilot through a connector I installed
>>>> on the back of the Navpod. This system worked very well, albeit without the
>>>> fancy graphical displays, and with no chart information. But it used almost
>>>> no power and was a familiar and easy to use friend that worked well with the
>>>> Raymarine pilot through the NMEA interface. The e95 is highly customizable
>>>> and will show you almost anything you can think of with the right inputs and
>>>> enough configuration. It is bright, colorful (and power hungry) and comes
>>>> with a 300 page pdf manual that I am still trying to work through. I'm still
>>>> getting used to it and hope it will become as second nature to use as my
>>>> ancient Garmin. However I have a few complaints about it. It sounds a VERY
>>>> loud and annoying waypoint arrival alarm when I am still a good distance
>>>> from a waypoint. If I push "track" to accept the new course (and to silence
>>>> the alarm) it IMMEDIATELY turns the ship in the direction of the new
>>>> waypoint rather than waiting until I actually reach the old waypoint. On
>>>> several occasions this caused me to almost run into large buoys or fixed
>>>> markers, or to turn inside of them instead of passing on the required side.
>>>> Fortunately the Standby button is easy to reach. Hopefully I can find some
>>>> parameters to tweak so that the chartplotter gives more reasonable course
>>>> change instructions to the autopilot. And why can't they implement an alarm
>>>> that gives some warning before arrival, but doesn't sound like a fire alarm
>>>> until you actually get there? I'm also annoyed that the new unit has no
>>>> tide/current info unless I upgrade to "Gold" or "Platinum" Navionics charts
>>>> at a high price. And the Voyage Planner software is an extra $49 on top of
>>>> the $$$$ for the chartplotter, but is totally brain dead. However it's the
>>>> only tool I've found for transferring waypoint or route information to/from
>>>> the unit because Raymarine insists on using a proprietary file format. Seems
>>>> to me that the included software for the fishfinder, radar, AIS, weather
>>>> data, infrared camera, XM/Sirius radio, and Raymarine proprietary sound
>>>> system (none of which I have) should be priced extra rather than the simple
>>>> and buggy waypoint transfer software.
>>>>
>>>> Finally, we swapped out the VHF for a new ICOM model with remote mic at
>>>> the helm.  I finally have DSC and a working distress alert system.
>>>>
>>>> Kudos to Phil and his team at Electronic Marine in Annapolis who did
>>>> beautiful work installing all of the above on a tight schedule.
>>>>
>>
>
>