Barrelling down some big waves en route (finally) to Cherbourg the other week I got a bit fed up with Raymond the Raymarine Autopilot's sub-standard helming with waves on the quarter, and wondered if fitting a rudder position sensor might help him buck his ideas up a bit. The internet sounds positive, and I gather it's perfectly possible to fit one to a transom-hung rudder (it has a quadrant after all).

Do others have such things in their autopilot systems? Do they help? Any advice on fitting one?

Thanks!
Peter

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We have a rudder sensor, it was fitted by Parkers to the mechanics of the steering gear in the aft cabin. Originally this fed a Ramarine S1 wheel pilot which was quite good until the CPU failed and it went mad. We replaced it with an EV-1 which is really very good even down wind in quite a lot of wind. I suspect that adding a rudder sender to your set up may not make all that much difference but you can only try it and see. Ramarine rudder sensors seem to crop up quite often on ebay.

Martin
P335/50

Thanks Martin, that's good to hear. Raymond is also an EV-1 and for a machine he isn't bad downwind but with waves he needs all the help he can get. I suspect the real issue is a too-short rudder but that is another topic (and many people, including I think you, have talked me out of a bigger one!).

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