Autopilot

[sam]

Experienced an interesting autopilot event recently while offshore. The yoke that attaches the hydraulic rod to the steering quadrant came loose. The rod came un-threaded from the yoke. The control head was sending information to the ram and it was responding, it just had come loose from the yoke. I took the pin out that holds the yoke to the steering quadrant and threaded the yoke back onto the rod and snugged the locking nut and reinstalled the yoke on the quadrant. A short 3 minute fix, but quite the puzzle at first. Seems that either the yoke had only been installed with a thread or two engaged or that the hydraulic piston can rotate / back out over time if the locking / jam nut is not tight.
I recommend checking the jam nut.
By the way, just placed second in the crusing spinnaker class during Harvest Moon regatta (150 mile offshore race from Galveston to Port Aransas along the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Huge storm caused trouble for much of the fleet, but a partially reefed main and partially reefed jib proved just right.
Cheers!
Sam

[sam]

Handled well. Several boats retired. At least two goose-necks parted and one boom was bent. We had the main partially reefed (furled, as I have the RFmain) when the abrupt wind shift coupled with the front and downburst hit. The jib back-winded for a few seconds until we could release it and furl partially. We sailed nicely and well balanced. I have been working on boat trim (weight distribution) and we did not pound or experience too uncomfortable motion. I carry the spare anchor in the bilge on center-line ( a Fortress taken apart and bagged) and sail with the aft water tank empty as with a total of 6 crew we seem to congregate in the cockpit and make the boat stern heavy. The B43 is an active boat and requires aggressive steering attention compared to some full keel boats I have sailed offshore previously. But, I will give up some tracking for the performance!
I have a whisker pole with continuous line control set up on the forward edge of the mast and it worked wonderfully. Wing on wing at 7+ knots is a beautiful thing.

[Mike Brown]

Sam, sounds like you had her dialed in nicely. Since it's usually just my wife and I, and most times she's just going for the ride, so there's no way I'd try wing on wing myself. Hitting 7kts is impressive though. This summer I've been finding my way around her trim settings. Keep her from heeling excessively and she'll fly. She also seems to like a reef in both sails when it gets a bit too breezy. As you said a bit more to handle but great performance in return. Congratulations on the finish.

[sam]

Mike, I've found a way to set the whisker pole that makes it very easy to manage. It is mounted on the front of the mast with a continuous loop line control with cam cleats so it is always under control, raising or lowering it from its stored position. I use the spinnaker halyard as a topping lift and rig a foreguy and an after-guy on the pole, cleating them off to the forward and midship cleats. This sets a solid pole and you can furl the jib completely if the wind pipes up and leave the pole out until you want to deal with it later.
I agree fully on reef early and reef often. The boat sails well relatively flat.

[Alain Brauckmann]

We just installed the Raymarine Gyro Plus 2
I just can say: WOWWW!
Now the steering into the waves is much better, better than I have ever done!

[foster]

Hello Alain,

Did you notice that after the Gyro 2 installation some displays on The E80 charts moved al the time ? I remebered this when we installed the same Gyro2 about a year ago. Then modifying some display setups solved the problem.

Denis

[Alain Brauckmann]

No, but I found the error we had before ... that the ship moved continuously 180° of direction.

The error was that we had connected the unit with Seaktalk AND the normal connection to the A.pilot.

After I connected it only to the A. Pilot connection it worked really fine ( in 2 meter long rolling waves and 27knots of wind was like sailing on a lake )