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Old 03-07-2016, 10:59 AM   #63
twistedtree
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City: Vermont
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 10,092
There has been some discussion about features, and what you are willing to pay extra for. Our AP use is very basic - Auto mode and Nav mode. I don't use any of the fishing patterns or other things.

But I have come to really value one feature, and that's a dial for making course adjustments versus just having buttons. There are a lot of situations when we run in Auto mode and steer the boat by making course adjustments on the AP. I'll run like that the whole way into a port right up until we are ready to start maneuvering to dock, and we run pretty much every channel in auto mode with course adjustments.

I find a dial way, way more convenient and controllable than port/stbd buttons. I bring this up because the comnav panel you showed appears to only have buttons. The Simrad AP24 is the same way. One thing I like about the Furuno pilot is that both the small and large control panels have dial controls. Only the large Simrad (AP28 and AP70) has a dial. I'm not sure about Ray.

But it's something to consider when you are deciding what you want to spend your $$ on.
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