Autohelm 3000 - going in circles

[DCoulter]

I am new to the autohelm 3000. It came with my 1982 CD-28 and when I tried to use it, my boat just went in circles. The device is well mounted, but I clearly do not know how to calibrate this instrument. Any suggestions from other want to be single handlers out there? Thanks, David

[Ron Churgin]

I am not familiar with that model, but Raymarine posts the instruction manuals on their web site.

[bottomscraper]

Raymarine user manual links for retired auto pilot products:

http://www.raymarine.com/default.aspx?s ... &Page=1925

[Boyd]

I just gave up on my Autohelm 3000 because it suddenly only would turn one way. I got suspicious when it would issue the off course alarm every few minutes.

I diagnosed the problem being in the controler electronics by testing it while the boat was at dock. I reversed the leads to the motor and discovered that when doing so it would only turn in the oposite direction.

Should you find that your motor is defective and not the electronics, I have what appears to be a perfectly good motor.

If you should find someone who will fix these let me know as I would like to have my old one as a spare. I recently installed a new X-5 wheel pilot reluctantly. The old Autohelm 3000 gave 20 years of great service.

Boyd
s/v Tern
CD30 MkII
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

[The Patriot]

I am getting set to go on a short cruise and was testing gear last week on Barnegat Bay. "Kerry Deare" has quite a bit of "junk" on board, including a laptop running The Capn that is interfaced with the autopilot. I turned everything on and was proceeding under power with a route called "Barnegat Bay South." When I asked the pilot to follow the route down Bay, everything turned out as planned. We would approach and eventually reach a waypoint, at which time the pilot requested that I confirm the next turn. All was well.

Shortly thereafter I turned around and headed back up the Bay to the boatyard. I clicked on a waypoint and the pilot engaged and proceeded up Bay along the route. However when I reached the next waypoint and the pilot needed confirmation for the next leg, all hell broke loose. The boat started turning in circles it seemed, and I began thinking I was in for another expensive autopilot repair, just in time for the cruise. So I cancelled all the routes and tried again with the same route, and the same thing happened. In fact 3 times before I stopped trying and just proceeded in the standard fashion with no GPS interfaced. What the heck?

Later that night I was lying in bed at home fretting about this when the light bulb went on. The name of the route is "Barnegat Bay South," so naturally the next waypoint from any given waypoint is, well, south. And the pilot was only trying to get the boat, which was obstinately heading north, to turn around and proceed in the right direction.

For the record, I also have routes called "Barnegat Bay North," which I simply had ignored during the test.