“Hello all, I’m looking into adding autopilot to my boat. I have a 30’ Willard Vega Searcher. 17000 lbs displacement, typical speed 6 knots with Teleflex cable steering.I’d like to keep my cable steering to avoid the expense of changing to hydraulic. I was at the Annapolis boat show and spoke to a rep for Octopus drives. Would like to get any feedback from fellow cruisers regarding reviews of this system. System I was discussing would replace the behind dash helm unit, work with my cable steering, and has an available add on feature of a remote steering controls”
I had / installed an Octopus Drive in a smaller boat. (26 feet and 7500 pounds.) It worked well. Well made heavy duty electric motor. I would guess that it would drive your boat as well. Remove the Teleflex head, install the Octopus, re feed the cables into the Octopus. This is just a drive. I used the Si Tex SP 110 Autopilot.
https://www.si-tex.com/item/sp110autopilotsystem
Actually now that I think of it, the Octopus and the Sp 110 both came from SiTex. They offer great support.