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

[wipi]

Hi,
I have a 24ft sailing boat (Seascape 24) with an EV-1 autopilot system installed, using an above-board EV-100 tiller drive. Performance is great, both by course or wind, and I use it a lot. However, ..

The one thing that is really annoying is that in order to change to manual and back, you need to unhook it from the tiller (and make sure it's not banging around too much) and then, even worse, to fit it back on the little tiller pin. This, while you should worry about sails, direction,.. in an angled boat, is really unpractical.

So, the question is, does Raymarine plan to provide an above-board drive with a built-in engagement clutch, like the below-deck models have, in the near future?
I would upgrade immediately.


Additional question: in this configuration, would installing a rudder position sensor provide any benefits in performance?

Thanks for feedback, regards
Willy

[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

[wipi]

Hi Tom,
thanks a lot for your feedback and the information provided.
I am actually surprised that you are surprised about my feedback on the tiller pilot's limitations. In the Seascape user group (those are fairly sporty boats, so there are quite a few enthusiastic sailors there), there are numerous discussions on that topic and some have changed to the under-board linear drives to get an always-on drive. However, that requires some crafty boat work to install a robust mechanism in the aft of the boat and the costs are significant.

Regarding the rudder sensor, my question was not driven by bad performance, but also quite a few peer discussions on the benefits of this add-on. But I take your advice for some fine-tuning. Performance of the EV-1 system is really great, I like it.

Regards
Willy

[Tom - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hello wipi,

Thanks are due to you then for bringing it to our attention here - not everyone brings feedback to us directly, allowing us (potentially at least) to act on it. I'll pass this on and hopefully when the time comes to redesign the venerable tiller drive, we make make the next version an even more successful one.

Thanks again,
Tom