[CA] [CA11] Upgrade to Evolution Autopilot

[tholley55]

Hi, I’m plant to go offshore next year in my sailboat - Catalina 470 (33,000 lb, fin keel, balanced spade rudder, year 2000). I currently have S3G with mechanical linear actuator. I would like my autopilot to be able to steer in heavy weather should I encounter it - such as 40 kn wind and big seas. As I see it, I have 2 options 1/ recondition existing actuator 2/upgrade to Evolution AP with either linear or hydraulic. I will be upgrading to Axiom 9 MFD/Quantum 2 regardless of the AP decision.

My questions are as follows:

- what drive unit would be most appropriate for above conditions
- is there a substantial performance improvement relative to heavy conditions for the Evolution series or is the heavy weather performance more related to the drive unit ?
- with reconditioning my system and staying with the S3G be able to handle heavy weather ?
- long arm linear has hard over speed of 15 seconds - is that adequate for heavy weather ?

Any advice on this would be much appreciated.


thank you,

Tim Holley