After allowing the boat to steady onto an
automatically controlled heading, carry out small
incremental adjustments to the compass dial until
the vessel steadies on to the desired heading.
dial will alter course to port.
•
The vessel may now be steered onto any other
heading by adjusting the compass dial. If the
autopilot appears to be working continuously due
to sea conditions, switch over to rough. The rate
of working will then reduce substantially.
Wind vane control
When the system is fitted with a wind vane
attachment it will in general be easier to set up
under compass control first as described above, and
then to switch over to wind vane control.
First trial
s under wind vane control are best
carried out when sailing to windward slightly off
When the vessel is sailing steadily under a
magnetically controlled heading, the wind vane
mast should be rotated to feather the vane to
ane and the actuator will then
respond to variations in wind direction.
• When the vessel has steadied onto a wind-
controlled heading, carry out small rotational
adjustments to the vane mounting mast until you
are satisfied that you are sailing on an optim
Note that to adjust the yacht's heading you rotate,
the vane stanchion in the same direction as you
would the tiller. You will find also that to trim
your course only very small movements should be
applied to the vane stanchion.
• R
epeat the above procedure broad reaching and
finally running down wind by progressively
slackening the sheets and slowly rotating the
vane to bring the vessel onto the new headings.
Disengagement
The pushrod is held into engagement with the tiller
erely by the weight of the actuator unit. This
method of engagement is secure and has been adopted
for safety reasons to allow the pushrod to be
easily disengaged when manual override becomes
necessary.
Operating hints
Sail balance
It is always advisab
le when sailing under automatic
pilot control to pay strict attention to sail
balance. Good sail balance is particularly
essential in gusty conditions and strong winds.
When a yacht is sailing badly out of balance,
sudden gusts will generally cause it to
violently to windward. When hand steering, this
tendency is corrected by applying sufficient
weather helm to hold the original course until the
gust subsides. A simple autopilot, however, does
not understand the need for weather helm and will,
ore, allow the yacht to luff to windward
until sufficient helm is applied to achieve a new
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