Larry wrote:

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 13:04:20 -0500, Harry Krause wrote:

Larry wrote:

I have a Bombardier Utopia 185 jet boat, powered by a Merc 100hp DFI jet.
That is an 18.5 ft bowrider runabout. I would like to add an autopilot to
it. Anyone have any recommendations? Has anyone added an autopilot to a
jet boat and have any suggestions? Thanks

No offense, but what you are doing with your hands and eyes on an 18'
boat that require you to use an autopilot?

None taken, Harry. The problem isn't the boat size, it's the jet drive.
You can't take your hands off the wheel; it seems to need constant
corrections, and the lower your speed, the more sensitive. This is my
first jet, and while I love the idea of no prop (I'm in northern NH - all
lakes, some of them shallow), the tendency is for the boat to track to one
side. I'm not sure why this is, as "steering" consists of moving a large
pipe in an arc. One would think that it should tend to center, but it
doesn't.

I take her out alone quite a bit, usually on large lakes in western Maine.
I'd like to be able to reach for a sandwich and eat it without having to
hold on to the wheel constantly. Note that does not mean I'm not paying
attention! If I could rig a tiller pilot, that would be fine.

I realize this sounds like I know little to nothing about boats, but I was
born near the water and have cruised and sailed quite a bit. I've owned a
wide variety from a 14' runabout (my first) to a 38' twin screw Hubert
Johnson (my last before moving up here). That doesn't make me an expert,
but perhaps not a novice either.


Interesting. Well, autopilots work on small boats, but the small boats
I've been on that have been so equipped tend to wander a bit back and
forth, yaw, as it were. Bigger boats tend to do that, too, but the
motion seems less noticeable.

I don't know a soul who has a jetboat with an autopilot. Hinckley builds
some large, fancy boats and I presume they are so equipped. You might
want to contact Hinckley and what non-nominal behavior might be part and
parcel of equipping a small jet drive boat with an autopilot.


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