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gauvins · (This post was last modified: 07-30-18 01:07 AM by Tom - Raymarine - Moderator.)

Our boat is a heavy steel 13M cutter with hydraulic steering. It tracks well and has lots of inertia.

We have a raymarine SPX 30 course computer. I'd say that the pilot requires 4A on average. Which is a bit much as we wish to be 100% solar.

I understand that energy requirement is influenced by sea state. But maybe there are things that can be done to improve efficiency.

Two questions:

1. Is there a material difference between "smart" course computers and older generation (SPX 30). What order of magnitude?

2. How can we improve the efficiency of our SPX 30? For instance, even at low response setting (2), the pump (type 2 equivalent) is almost constantly active. Hand steered, we'd be much much less likely to change the rudder angle...