[DG] [DG11] ST6001 in the arctic

[Derek - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hi Gedmclean

Thankyou for your enquiry.

The issue at higher latitudes is due to the angle of dip of the magnetic field as you get nearer the poles - typically above 60 degrees which causes the conventional compasses, wet card and fluxgate , to become oversensitive to turn and give the effect of oversteering.

Gyrocompasses and some GPS compasses offer much better performance and are favoured by polar sailors, but also the current generation of Evolution autopilots - using the EV1 solid state sensor for heading information perform very well in these more extreme latitudes.

We have reports of GPS compasses being connected to the SPX autopilot computers and to current Evolution autopilots and operating satisfactorily in these latitudes, although we have not tested them ourselves and so cannot recommend a specific model or make.

Regards

Derek