Dumb Autopilot question

Todd320

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2016
1,508
St. Petersburg, FL
Boat Info
2007 Sea Ray 320DA
Engines
Twin V-drive 5.7L 350 Horizon
I don’t have auto pilot, but at some point the boat I own will. In several conversations with people, they have mentioned just setting the course and then walking away from the helm. One was a captain that mentioned he would drive 3 miles off the coast of Tampa, then turn towards Key West, and go to sleep! Then wake up near key west (trawler speed). To me, this seems insane. Does everyone that uses auto pilot for open water cruises just set it and forget it, or do most set it, then watch it, albeit not as intently as you would in a typical situation? I’m sure the boats he had included an alarm system connected to radar to detect objects in the path, but still.
 
i don't have auto-pilot and no need for it where we boat but no way on earth would i set it and even walk away for any amount of time. i guess in the open ocean i might be ok to take a pee break or grab something from the fridge but nothing longer than a couple minutes for me
 
Dumb Autopilot question

Actutally a smart one. boating like flying VFR is SEE and BE SEEN.
You ,as the operator will be held responsible Stupidity kills
 
I set it and then sit back and watch it. Along with being more relaxing, it lets me get a bottle of water from the cockpit fridge or when I’m in open water and have an able lookout with me I can go below for a minute or so to use the head or get some coffee.
 
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I set it and watch the radar, helm gauges and look out the window. It can get a little boring when you are offshore and there is nothing on the radar and all you see is a horizon all around you. But, the boats you do encounter are not to be messed with.
 
For me, I use my autopilot every day, but I never leave the helm. Offshore, or on a near shore cruise several hours in duration, the AP is a tremendous fatigue saver. 8-10 hours at the helm holding a course or following a route with lots of waypoints leaves you pretty much dull and exhausted when you finally arrive at your destination. Making the same trip with an AP and you will remain sharp and feel like something when you tie up. Part of the reason for this is having the ability to interface the AP to your plotter so you can set up a route for the AP to follow where all you need to do is to verify the arriving WP and that the AP has changed to the upcoming WP after passing the previous one.

Near shore, the AP allows you a 3rd hand to handle port entry navigation on your plotter or on a paper chart, to handle VHF communication, to keep the boat on course as you cross oncoming wakes from larger faster vessels .......or for you just get a Coke or water from the cooler at your feet.

If your boat is a keeper and you are not planning to trade up anytime soon, go ahead and add the AP.....you won't regret it.
 
Always keep a lookout on autopilot even if I'm well off shore. Like others have said keeps the fatigue level down.
 
Leaving the helm unattended for any length of time is nuts. AP is intended to help pilot the boat and reduce operational fatigue. It’s not an AI that can avoid a collision.

I can see using it while grabbing a drink or hitting the head quickly, but a nap? No way.
 
Like others have said, leaving the helm unattended with the AP on is asking for trouble. Worst case imagine single handing, leaving the helm on AP and going overboard - it has happened plenty of times. On boats that make any long passages, an AP is a necessity, not a luxury - hand steering, especially a sailboat for any length of time will just wear you out.
 
Like others have said, leaving the helm unattended with the AP on is asking for trouble. Worst case imagine single handing, leaving the helm on AP and going overboard - it has happened plenty of times. On boats that make any long passages, an AP is a necessity, not a luxury - hand steering, especially a sailboat for any length of time will just wear you out.

Well, while agreeing with what everyone is saying, I will point out that if you leave the helm and fall overboard, it isn't going to matter if you're on autopilot or not...

Autopilot is a great tool so you don't have to manually correct course. As many have stated, if you're offshore and/or it's a long cruising day, you will get fatigued trying to hand steer....

Speaking from experience, it's night and say difference cruising with AP. But, don't leave the helm for any lengthy period of time...
 
It is named “autopilot” not “auto captain” for a reason. Would never want a coastal boat that didn’t have AP.

You still have to maintain watch while underway.
 
Like others have said, leaving the helm unattended with the AP on is asking for trouble. Worst case imagine single handing, leaving the helm on AP and going overboard - it has happened plenty of times. On boats that make any long passages, an AP is a necessity, not a luxury - hand steering, especially a sailboat for any length of time will just wear you out.
There are MOB systems that will stop the boat in case of an overboard situation. You wear a remote sensor and it it gets too far from the base the engine will stop. There are different sensors for captain (stop the boat) and passenger (alert the captain).
 
Also agree auto pilot is a huge help and that coupled with your radar proximity alert can be great ,certainly not saying you should leave the helm for any length of time but out in the open ocean the radar when set up properly can alert if somebody’s in your watch zone which will give ample time to see what’s going on with any other vessels .... I’ve been 120 miles offshore where there’s nothing out there but NOAA buoys, But not auto pilot nor radar would ever pick up a saucer sled size turtle that surfaces right in front of you, if you run over one of those you’re gonna be in big trouble (true story) also heard about a horror story with one guy in a Sport fish hitting a whale and ripping the shafts out of the boat and actually lost the boat way offshore. You always have to be watching
 
In fairness, you are correct....Speed plays a roll....There are a lot of cruising sailboaters that set the AP and radar alarm (if they have radar) and go to sleep and set their alarms to wake up every hour to check things...It's tough with the sleep deprivation...But they are traveling at 4-5kts and while you can still be killed or sunk at that speed, you're not covering as much ground and usually you have time to react.
 
Here's a video of a captain that thought it was a good idea to set the autopilot and go downstairs to the head to drop a deuce. I have a friend that knows the guy, and said the boat was a total loss.


Not a good idea to set the autopilot and leave the helm...
 
I'm in the camp of autopilots are helpful assistants and allow for a quick break, but one should never leave the helm to keep a lookout for more than a few seconds, maybe a minute at the maximum.

Even with collision avoidance technologies, there are two very important additional reasons to never rely on them entirely:
  1. Our "public consumption" radars are not as good as human eyes for detecting floating/partially-submerged debris, and these are the data sources that an autopilot uses to avoid a collision. (Hitting a log really makes for a bad day on the water.)
  2. Autopilots cannot reason.
I recently found myself teaching my crew how to disengage the autopilot to steer around objects (because sometimes the captain needs to use the head) while they're on lookout duty.
 
I use auto pilot virtually all the time. I takes little to keep an eye on it but I stay at the helm to watch for floating objects, boats and debris. When I'm alone on the boat I don't push my luck by peeing off the swimplatform even while it's stopped.

I often watch the rudder indicator to see the autopilot work to hold course when things get rough, it's impressive, and makes things so easy. I got a realtime reminder of how easy a year ago last fall. I was heading across the lake for winter storage. The weather changed and the lake got stirred up bad real quick. I was in 8-10-12' beam seas. Pitch, roll, and yaw all at the same time....the fluxgate compass could not keep up with the motion and the autopilot stopped working.

I had all I could do to stay in the seat and do the steering. I did about 50-60 miles of that and was tuckered right out. I'm thankful I didn't need to pee because it would have been wet pants or a mess without a 5 gallon pail to point Mr Wiggly at.
 
Aside from the "Rule of Tonnage", didn't the small boat have the right of way?
 
Here's a video of a captain that thought it was a good idea to set the autopilot and go downstairs to the head to drop a deuce. I have a friend that knows the guy, and said the boat was a total loss.


Not a good idea to set the autopilot and leave the helm...

Hard to understand why the boat was a total loss from the collision unless it was holed below the water line.
 
Hard to understand why the boat was a total loss from the collision unless it was holed below the water line.
From what I understand, it snapped the keel and a few stringers.
 

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