Warning: If you are even thinking about buying a boat, read this story. Owning a boat is not all fun!

The auto pilot is a system that will automatically steer the boat. It receives information from the GPS, compass, and other instruments and use that information to move the rudder to maintain a course. An auto pilot is essential for cruisers like us because it gives you a lot more flexibility since you do not always have to have someone steering the boat (though you still need to have someone keeping a watch!). Our auto pilot system is four years old and is a little small for our size boat. We have been thinking of upgrading it.

On March 31, on the way from Snake Reef to Airlie Beach, we sailed all night with winds of 30+ knots gusting to over 40 knots. Late into the trip we started to have problems with our auto pilot system.  It had difficulty maintaining a course would periodically cease to function. We could re-engage it, but the time between failures seemed to be getting shorter.  The next day, in light winds on the way from Cid Harbor to Airlie Beach, it quit working altogether.

In Airlie Beach we were able to determine that the main unit of the auto pilot was bad. Rather than replace it and still have an underpowered unit, we decided to upgrade to a larger system. That would take some time, however, as we would need to research the possibilities and solicit bids to install a new system. So for the next few weeks, we would live without an autopilot and would just have to hand steer wherever we went. Fortunately, we weren't planning on any long passages.

Since we were going to leave the boat in Cairns when we went home, we wanted to find someone in Cairns who could install a new system. We also knew of another Oyster in Cairns who had just had a new auto pilot installed and he gave us a recommendation for the guy, Don,  who had done the work. After some research into various systems, and discussions with Don, we decided to go with a new Simrad system.  In the meantime, we also found that we could ship the old auto pilot back to England where it was made and for a reasonable fee, have it replaced with a re-conditioned unit. This is perfect as we wanted to have a backup system. Though we feel the old system is too small for everyday use, it will be a great backup in case our primary system fails.

While Bradley and I were at home, Don worked with Ron to install the new auto-pilot. When we arrived back in Cairns in late June, the system was almost ready to test. Don had another day of work and it was ready to go. There was a hitch, however.  The auto-pilot will tie into our navigation software, which we are in the process of upgrading along with a new computer. If you read The Computer Saga, you will know that by the time we arrived in Cairns we did not yet have our new computer. So we decided to test the auto pilot standalone, without the navigation software, and then to tie that in later after the computer was installed.

On Tuesday, July 2 with Don aboard we went out to test the new auto pilot.  We went through all kinds of calibrations and tests and everything seemed to be working fine. We took Don back ashore in the dinghy and headed to Double Island to anchor for the night. All seemed fine for the next week with our guests Kim and Marja on board. On July 10, Bradley's daughter Margy arrived with our new computer. Due to various problems, we departed Cairns without the computer installed with our ultimate destination Lizard Island. On our second day our of Cairns, we started to have intermittent failures of the auto pilot system The problems first occurred when we were using it to steer a course based on wind angle. But they soon progressed to the point where it was failing regularly even when sailing a compass course. It was failing even in light winds and flat seas.  Finally, before we reached Cooktown, it stopped working altogether. Looks like more hand steering until we get back to Cairns.

When we reached Lizard Island we called Don and notified him of the problem.  We arrived back in Cairns on Thursday night, Aug 1. On Friday Don came to check out the problem. He found that when the auto pilot was engaged it was drawing more than 20 amps of current. However, one component of the auto pilot system is an electrical junction box which only had the capacity to handle 12 amps and that seemed to be where the failure was occurring. So Don upgraded the junction box to one that would handle 40 amps. He was pretty confident that would solve the problem and all the tests we were able to do while in the marina went just fine.

We spent the next nine days in Cairns doing various tasks, including installing the computer, so that by the time we were ready to go out for real auto pilot tests we had the computer and all its software installed. We delayed our test for a couple days due to bad weather but on Monday, Aug 12 with Don again on board we set off. The system worked fine. We did all the calibrations and tested steering various courses by compass and by wind angle. Every test was passed. 

We did discover one problem. We should be able to enter courses (GPS Waypoints) into our navigation software and have them transmitted to the auto pilot and that was not working. But after a call to the nav software tech support we found we simply had a Com port defined incorrectly and we able to correct that function. So we were all happy that things were working. Our plan at this point was to head out to Opal Reef and some other nearby reefs for some more fun and auto pilot testing before our next guests arrive on Aug 19.

We dropped Don ashore and anchored for the night at Double Island and the on Tuesday Aug 13, set off at 7:00am for Opal Reef. It was great! I had plotted a course using Navigator, complete with waypoints which were automatically transmitted to the auto pilot. We reached the first waypoint and the second waypoint automatically engaged. Wonderful! Everything went smoothly for the next three hours. Then we got an alarm on the auto pilot with a message "Rudder Response Failure".   Ron then went into the lazarette to check on the unit. Lo and behold, he found the auto pilot motor badly overheated. It was far too hot to touch and had boiled some of the fluid out of its hoses. Something is definitely wrong!

We noticed a label on the motor that said "24 volt/12 amp". Does that mean the motor can only handle 12 amps? We had just installed the new junction box which increased the output from 12 amps up to a possible 40 amps. None of us are electricians, but it seems like the motor may have gotten more juice than it can handle and burned itself out. We are able to make a cell phone call to Don before we are out of range. Fortunately, we can now also send him an email using our satellite phone! So we decide to proceed to Opal Reef and then return early to either Port Douglas or Cairns to sort the problem out yet again.

In the meantime, we figure it's a good opportunity to install and test our re-conditioned backup unit. We want to make sure it works and that we know how to install it before we need it (when we will likely be at sea).  It takes Ron about two hours to switch to our backup up system. We use it all the way back to Port Douglas and it works fine.

Don meets us the next day in Port Douglas. He has been able to get a used motor which he will install temporarily. We can use it for testing and to be sure we find out what the problem is. It will take a couple weeks to get a new motor. It takes Don half a day to install the motor and go through various tests. He finally determines that the original motor was bad. It had caused the original problem with the junction box and then after we upgraded and replaced that, the motor itself burned out. Interestingly this same problem happened on another Oyster yacht we know. There must have been a bad batch or motors. But Don assures us that he's confident that the system will work now and we will ultimately get a brand new and defect-free motor! We don't have time to actually take the boat out for a test before Don has to leave, so we plan to spend all day tomorrow (Sunday) exercising the system.

We hold our breath as we depart Sunday morning for a full day of testing the auto pilot. First we do various calibrations and all seems OK. Then we let auto start driving. All is fine. It drives a compass course, it drives a waypoint from our GPS, it drives to a waypoint from our navigation software. It also drives to a specified wind angle. Whew. It does seem to be working. Every hour we check the motor to see if it's hot. It seems to be running fine. We sail for about six hours with a brief stop at Tongue Reef to catch a couple coral trout for dinner and to observe a nice whale show. The conditions are light - about 10 knots of wind and pretty flat seas. It remains to be seen how the system will perform in heavier weather, but for now it seems to be working fine. We give Don a call to let him know and we all get a good night's sleep.

It is now September 13 and it's been almost a month since the motor was installed. The system continues to work well. We are now back in Cairns and Don will come in the next couple days to install the new motor. We will be able to keep the old one as a backup, so we should be in good shape!