Thanks to a very generous gift from my father Dan Trefethen, Jean and I were able to purchase an autopilot for the Omarsea.
For those who have never been offshore, a boat like the Omarsea must have a watch 24 hours a day when sailing the oceans of the world. In the past this required someone to man the helm for 2 to 4 hours at a time in all kinds of weather. Often exposed to cold spray, extreme winds and unable to leave the helm for various duties.
After our many years of experience aboard our first boat the Southern Toy ,Jean and I realized how much better it is to let a machine steer. While the person on watch stays warm and dry under the spray screen/ Dodger keeping a lookout for shipping traffic, doing navigation and log entries as well as making the odd cup of tea the auto pilot keeps the vessel on course.
On the Omarsea the kids will do watches with Jean and I up until 10:00pm and then we Adults will do the night shifts. Late evening is a great time to learn the constellations, take moon and star shots with the sextant and develop nautical skills like learning the light patterns that different ships display at night.
The freedom to do many of these things is only possible with the use of an autopilot like the Raymarine unit in the picture.
The package contains a central core processor programmed to control a vessel up to 77,000 lbs.
There is a fluxgate compass to read direction electronically and a rudder angle indicator that tells the processor where the rudder is in relation to the centerline of the boat.
This unit can and will be combined with our Gps unit and automatically steer from point a to point b.
I want to thank my Dad for his wonderful gift !
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