Below Deck Autopilot CD33

[Paul D.]

Femme came with a factory added (I assume) 1982 Benmar Cetek Course Setter 21R rotary autopilot with an interesting rack & pinion mount to the rudder shaft. I've not heard of another 33, or CD for that matter, with a similar set up. All Edson cast bronze, and as heavy as the D/L ratio is for these hulls! It worked great when we got her in 2002 for a few years then it seemed to get dementia and finally went full crazy.

After a year of diligently trying to refurbish it, I got the idea (and some found money) to use the existing rotary motor and it's burly attachment to the rudder shaft and fit a new Raymarine Evolution 200 APU, Compass Sensor, control head and rudder sensor to it. After checking with Raymarine techs, a good friend and I pulled out the old circuits of the old AP, many of which were housed in the military spec motor and I sent them back to Benmar in hopes they would help another old one live to steer another day. Then we installed the new Raymarine brains and sensors, hooked it all up and it worked fabulously for ten years steering through all sorts of conditions.

Last year I noticed the fiberglass mount for the bronze rack & pinion gear working pretty badly when the AP was in use and I felt it risked coming adrift and jamming all steering ability. Sot I pulled out the gear, found some cockpit sole rot and let it dry out over winter. This year I reinforced the mount with glass and epoxy, cut out the rusted bolts holding part of the mounts and replaced everything back. Filled the cockpit sole rudder shaft access with epoxy and re sealed the bronze access plate. Hardest part of the whole project was reaching stuff, especially the bolts and the gear mount to glass it all up. I ended up cutting an area away from the lazarette bulkhead to make it work.

While not quite Joshua Slocum's Spanish steerer in his hour of need, it feels great to once again have a 12volt helmsman that works really well in all conditions, is a backup to the cable/chain steering system and is quieter than all of my shipmates.

[JD-MDR]

Looks nice. Paul. Just to contribute to the topic. I installed Jeffa sprocket drive system on Leoma’s worm drive steering gear you can see in the photo how it connects to the aft end of the worm gear shaft. It has been working flawlessly. It is quiet and doesn’t use much power and when the centrifugal clutch is disengaged it has no noticeable friction to affect the windvane steering