[TG] [TG11] Tiller drive with (dis-)engagement clutch?

[Tom - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hello wipi,

To the best of my knowledge we're not planning any modifications to the tiller drive. We've been making the Q047 Tiller drive almost unchanged since 1991 and to date I don't think the product managers have seen any pressing need to change it. I understand your point, but I have to say that I've been in Raymarine support for around 20 years and have received very little similar feedback over the years, so if it's a widespread concern amongst tiller drive users, it's not something that is frequently fed back to us.

Regarding a rudder-position sensor: knowing where exactly the rudder is can allow the pilot to be more accurate about the drive movements it makes to achieve particular course changes, but how much of an improvement you see would depend very much on how good the steering performance you're seeing now is. If you are seeing less-than-perfect performance now then I would suggest checking your Hard-Over Time calibration value, and experimenting between different Vessel hull type settings, before spending money fitting new parts. Both of these settings, and also whether the pilot has an accurate speed data input, have a big impact on how well the pilot steers and generally the EV pilots steer very well without a rudder reference, as long as the setup is right.

Regards,
Tom