For solo sailing, definitely consider a windvane. Hydrovane is a good choice because it has a completely separate rudder and can work if the boat's rudder is disabled for whatever reason (I used one

I had a Hydrovane on my Santorin. When it worked it worked beautifully. I took it off and sold it. Occasionally it would not quite hold the boat and I had to release he locking on the wheel to put it

In our experience there are points of sail where our boat can sail itself for a remarkable long time (upward of 45m) with the helm completely free, and that despite of confused seas. We’ve done it

Thanks, Mohammad. Many people think that my book is comprised of my first-hand experiences. It is not. About 20% of the book consists of things that I have learned from others' experiences. In fact,

The first line of checking for bow thruster problems should be the connections at the back of the control switches at the helm. There are numerous push on connectors that are prone to corrosion. Note

If you have to hand steer due to electrical problems, the hand steering is the minor problem. Regards Ann-Sofie S/Y Lady Annila, SM 232 Present in Fuengirola, Spain Skickat från min iPhone

All valid comments and thank you for your inputs. How is it humanly possible to manually steer a boat for 15 or 20 days if you're on your own and for exemple having to deal with a complete electrical

Hello Thomas; Doug informed me that he remembered seeing a post from you in this regard and Bill managed to locate and forward it. Your write up was also helpful. Bill is great at “soaking

Please remember that the boat can be steered by aft autopilot if the cables snap or the rack and pinion lock up. If all else fails, you still have the enormous emergency tiller which some people

Hello Stéphane The concept of dual auto-pilot on my personal point of view is that For long haul trip I am more confortable with a back up. Agree that there is only one rudder but as a former twin

My .02 - YMMV 😉 - True redundancy means two completely independent systems… How this is done on a boat with one rudder is different than one with two. The SM and A54 (one rudder) have

Hi, just remember that unlike an aircraft a boat wont fall out of the sky if the auto pilot fails, manual steering remains which I guess, while inconvenient, is the fail safe fall back

Hello, Please just le me introduce myself quickly, When I was 16 years old my father's best friend bought a SM brand new from the factory. I was stocked and we sailed onboard his SM around Toulon area

Hello Richie, I am in Greece (Kilada) and i just upgraded my A54 with Lithium batteries myself, with Victron batteries. Everything works fine. No issue. Best Dominique

Hi all, That issue happened to us 3 years ago and we reported on the solution here (06/06/18 #40108 ). I would suggest carrying a spare relay as it happened to us again just recently. Note that we

This is great news...wishing you the best. FYI, maybe a start capacitor is out of spec, slightly increasing the start-up burst of power it is supposed to give. There are a number of suspects, but the

Quick update on the Air Conditioning issue: The breaker broke, that is clear. It would not reset under power, it would not reset without power, and it would not reset once physically removed from

In the end I got a really nice insurance from a renowned Dutch insurance company. They do limit themselves to Dutch customers and Dutch registered vessels so not really for most of the people here. I

Hi Folks Finally, two years after purchase, Why Knot formerly Guma will receive some hands on love from her new owners. She is on the hard in Kos Marina, Greece. One of our first tasks is to repower

I am glad it worked out and thanks for the photos. I was aware that this solution worked on at least two cases, but did not have the benefit of such exacting photos. I am thinking that the life of