Autopilot

[Mike Wood]

What's the best bang for your buck for an autopilot for an 87 sundancer 268?

I used to have a 21' searay way back when that I put autopilot on that went on under the steering wheel but I can't seem to find those.

 

[sea hare]

What kind of MFD do you have? What type of drive?
Typically it is best to get the same brand AP as your MFD/Chartplotter. For sterndrives, you would get an Octopus drive unit.

 

[Mike Wood]

What kind of MFD do you have? What type of drive?
Typically it is best to get the same brand AP as your MFD/Chartplotter. For sterndrives, you would get an Octopus drive unit.

I just bought a new garmin today. I was looking at this one.
Furuno NavPilot 300 w/Octopus 1.0L Pump 12V

 

[Riptide III]

A potential problem with not sticking with all Garmin would be the inability of the autopilot to follow a coarse. It will most likely only work in heading mode. My advice, Garmin reactor if you have a Garmin gps.

 

[Mike Wood]

So I talked to linwood marine today about which autopilot would work for my boat and they are telling me I need to replace my helm with an Octopus drive on top of buying an autopilot, like 5200.00

 

[sea hare]

You still didnt say what drives you have on the boat.

For sterndrive you would want this: (plus whatever AP system you want, probably should go with garmin. No reason you should be anymore than $3k if you install yourself)

Octopus Sterndrive System F/Mercruiser From 1994 & North American Volvo From 1997