Oops. It was Maria, not Rachael, that also used a coaming mount. On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 20:09:37 -0700 Larry E Yake <leyake@juno.com> writes:
I installed a Simrad 10 tiller pilot on Tullamore this spring. The height difference between the seat and the tiller on a 17 is pretty substantial. Around 13.5" as I recall. More than you can make up with a pedestal bracket and tiller drop bracket. Like Rachael, I ended up installing the coaming mount on the seat back. It's a rather expensive part, around $70, but it works well, makes a clean functional mount, and also solves the distance problem from the coaming to the tiller. The extension rod that screws into the coaming mount can be removed when you don't expect to use the tiller pilot for a while, leaving only the mounting plate and power plug in sight. I installed mine an inch or two closer to the transom than is recommended in the instructions to allow the cover on the small starboard hatch to be opened with the pilot in place. It doesn't seem to have affected the performance.
Larry
On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 14:14:11 -0400 "Morris, Giles" <giles.morris@unisys.com> writes:
I am curious about how others have mounted their auto pilots on
M17's. I
have an older Navico Tiller-pilot and at first glance the coaming is too far away, and the cockpit seat in too far below the tiller for any convenient mounting arrangement? How have others accomplished this?
I had a somewhat similar problem, in that the tiller was too far above the coaming. It all worked out on Dolphin by raising the coaming mount with a pedestal bracket rather like this
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product/10001/-1/100
01/125525/10001/630/628/3 and by attaching a bracket below the tiller, somewhat like this
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product/10001/-1/100
01/7598/10001/630/628/3 . It works well.
If it's just a matter of distance, you could use an extension rod.
I like mine enough that after it went nuts on my last trip (it misunderstood the Tack command as "Hard a starboard, and keep it there forever") I decided to buy another. Luckily, it restored itself to useful life after being unpowered for a while.
Giles Morris Vancouver 25 Dolphin
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