hogrider46 wrote:
I just got my 1974 32' GB.* It does not have an auto pilot.*What would be a good unit to get for a 17,000# boat?
*If you have not yet gotten the information you are looking for I second the idea posted earlier about posting your question to the Grand Banks Owners Forum
http://www.grandbanksowners.com/index.php.* You need to join the GB forum in order to post to it and use many of the features, like the section that has copies of engine, transmission, etc. manuals.* Joining the forum is free but most members contribute annually to help defray the cost of maintaining the forum.
There are people on the GB forum like Bob Lowe, who for years ran Oak Harbor Boatworks in Washington State, a yard that specialized in maintaining, restoring, repairing, and upgrading Grand Banks boats, both wood and fiberglass.* There isn't much about GBs that Bob doesn't know and there are other very experienced and knowledgeable GB owners on the forum as well.* It is the best single source of information about virtually every aspect of owning and operating a wood or fiberglass*Grand Banks on the internet.
As your boat, like ours, has cable/chain steering there are some people, Bob Lowe*included, who believe that installing a hydraulic ram-type rudder control in the lazarette for an autopilot is not the best of ideas.* Back-driving the cable/chain steering system from the rudder bar(s) puts a lot of strain on the system because of the steering ratio that's used in the cable/chain system.* The better solution Bob and many*other GB owners feel, is to use an autopilot that drives the the wheel at the lower*helm.*
Many GBs had the old Benmar autopilot which had a control unit hung from the overhead in the engine room and was connected to the helm wheel with a sprocket and chain system.* There are new autopilots available today that operate somewhat the same.* These units, like the old Benmar, allow for control stations at the lower and upper helms.
Our 1973 GB36 had a Benmar autopilot on it when we bought it*which didn't work.* The estimated cost to repair it was some $1,000 and the age of the unit pretty much guaranteed that something else would fail sooner rather than later.* The seller knocked $1,000 off the price of the boat*to compensate for the*non-functioning autopilot but*the age and vulnerability of the old*Benmar, plus the fact that I prefer to run a boat manually in the waters we boat in, plus the fact that the Benmar's big*control unit made getting around the front of the engines very difflcult caused us to remove the system altogether.* But should we ever decide to install an autopilot we would go with the type that drives the helm wheel, not a hydraulic ram-type in the lazarette connected to a rudder bar.
-- Edited by Marin on Friday 15th of July 2011 01:05:17 AM
