Actually Raymarine wants it within 10 degrees vertically and have in the
past, said mount it athwartships. Recently they said it can be side mounted.
It is really not a gyro but an accelerometer device. On a sailboat I would
still suggest mounting it to a bulkhead that is vertical with respect to the
pitch axis.
Doug, K7ABX


"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
We installed Raymarine's Smart Heading Sensor in Lionheart, an Amel
Sharki 41 ketch. As the B&G Pilot electro-hydraulic autopilot uses
its own fluxgate, not the data on the NMEA bus, for compass heading, I
don't see any difference. I don't think it would make any difference,
anyways, as the B&G Pilot is just like having a ghost at the helm it's
so smooth and powerful. It constantly "learns" from every turn how
the boat handles and corrects any overshoot, etc. The ram is so quick
and powerful back there on the rudder post, compared to the old
Autohelm 4000 jerking away so slowly on the wheel, it can hard over
the helm to compensate really fast......if you don't get your knee
knocked as the wheel spins around hard.

Look at the Raymarine Smart Heading Sensor manual on:

http://www.raymarine.com/raymarine/S...81198_1www.pdf

Go to page 9 of the Gyro installation and read where it says it has to
be within 10 degrees of vertical to work right.

Name 3 sailboats you know of that remain within 10 degrees of vertical
so it will work right. I can't find any here, either, especially
ours. I'm not sure what 30 degrees of heel does for it. Does it
render it useless?



On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 19:46:38 -0800, Steven Dubnoff
wrote:


Can anybody explain what rate stabilizers, how they do it and whether
they are worth the money for slow moving displacement boats?

Many thanks,

Steve





Larry W4CSC

No, no, Scotty! I said, "Beam me a wrench.", not a WENCH!
Kirk Out.....