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Pelagic Autopilot - any experiences?

F

Foolish

New member
I'm looking for a new autopilot for my Olson 30 after my 10 year old Raymarine finally died. I see California company Pelagic is claiming several users from our group (http://pelagicautopilot.com) including an Olson 30 and other boats of similar ilk. What are your experiences with it? Can it handle 20-25 knot winds with a spinnaker?

From the website I can't figure out if they just sell the computer, or if they also have a ram, rudder sensor and control head. Comments are welcome.
 
Over half the SHTP fleet this past year had Pelagic I think. The owner is an SSS member of some repute. What repute? Well, some!

Superb bang for buck, excellent course keeping (including under spin at 25+), wind-steer mode available, actuator strong enough for an Olson 34 (or bigger) let alone an Olson 30.

Very good customer service and support. Buy one before marketing catches up with product quality and they raise the prices! ;)
 
Just don't wire the Pelagic's actuator (ram) in parallel with your Raymarine ACU (thinking you'll be able to switch between AP's on the fly). The owner - whose last name sounds a lot like that German dishwasher company - will have to rewire a smoking motor drive box. Ask me how I know this...

Andy, I've had the Pelagic actuator for almost two years and it still runs as smoothly as when I installed it. I installed the Pelagic controller and motor drive box last weekend - well, sort of (see above).

Yes, it's a complete system. There's no separate rudder reference (it doesn't seem to need it) and the heading sensor is inside the controller box. This means you need to be careful and strategic about how you install the controller box.

Pelagic is the bees knees.
 
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Truth be told, my pelagic steered my entire SHTP this year, excepting perhaps an hour getting out the gate and about 45minutes of fluky transition around the Farallons.
Never even turned the Alpha Pilot on.

Appears to have worked out alright.

DH
 
yes, using the Pelagic controller.
Interfaced that to my B&G wind instruments via NMEA 0183 [you'd have to talk to Brian about that SeaTalk bullshit], which worked OK until I lost the windex after my 2nd or 3rd round down.
after that in compass/gyro mode.

DH
 
Thanks Guys. I had a long chat with Brian yesterday and I've decided that this is the way to go. I like the fact that he has integrated the course computer, compass and control head into one unit. I wonder why the others don't do that. I'll be placing my order soon. At this price I can't go wrong. The Olson 30 is a darned twitchy boat downwind in a blow. We'll see if it can handle it.
 
In my case I already had a below-decks hydraulic Nexus A/P, interfaced to the main instrument bus. The Pelagic was a completely independent system in the cockpit, in part for redundancy. Also, the Pelagic has lower power consumption and is quieter when you are trying to sleep, compared to the below deck unit. I bought a spare Pelagic ram as well, as a backup, and it was needed on the return delivery.

I'm pretty sure the whole Pelagic system with spare ram was less money than a backup Nexus hydraulic ram only.
 
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DaveH said:
yes, using the Pelagic controller.
Interfaced that to my B&G wind instruments via NMEA 0183 [you'd have to talk to Brian about that SeaTalk bullshit], which worked OK until I lost the windex after my 2nd or 3rd round down.
after that in compass/gyro mode.

DH
Click to expand...

In anticipation of installing the Pelagic, I bought an Actisense NGW-1 STNG converter (my system is SeaTalkNG). But I think the Pelagic presently only accepts AWA (not TWA). Steering to AWA could certainly cause you to round down as AWA goes forward on a surf. I need to ask Brian about this.
 
There are some beta protocols with my unit re wind angle, but leaving that aside, my round downs were actually caused by sea state.
most were in fact not in wind mode.
100% were due to cross sea induced rig oscillation. And perhaps pushing a tad too hard.

The sequence would go something like this:
heading roughly WSW surfing on large (15-18') storm driven swell train.
leftover NW tradewind swell kicks stern to leeward
AP corrects course, but rudder action induces rig oscillation leading to occasional pole plant.

DH
 
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Uh oh, we might be getting another call from the SHTP Marketing Dept.

From what he said last weekend I think Brian is playing with a heel factor in the gyro software - I assume both to leeward and in the "rig oscillation" direction. What a tactful term...

I have the urge to post a video but I'll give Bartz a break and not post his famous one. This one turned out better - the boat didn't end up on the bricks in front of the StFYC:

Archie 35 cockpit rinse.
 
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That's why I didn't mention the accompanying a** pucker that is exponentially proportional to the amount of "rig oscillation". oops.

I am aware of that there are positive developments on the oscillation damping profile. yes, works in both directions
essentially it is roll compensation effected with small rudder movements. Beta version working well from my understanding.

DH
 
In case anyone is wondering about it, we had no problem getting the Apparent Wind from a B&G Triton system talking NMEA 2000 to go through an Actisense converter to talk NMEA 0183 to the Pelagic controller.

Is anyone using something other than a Pelagic Controller to activate the Pelagic ram? Thinking of redundancy. Having 2 Pelagic rams and the ability to use a Pelagic controller and something like a B&G controller seems like a reasonable way to roll.
 
I've used the Pelagic actuator (ram) for almost two years with my Raymarine X5 and more recently, Raymarine EV-200. I had to change the Raymarine's settings because the Pelagic ram responds differently - there's a discussion of this somewhere on this forum - but once you do that the B&G controller should drive it just fine. Whichever controller you have is just sending a plus or minus pulse to the ram anyway - on mine it wasn't using SeaTalk to talk to the ram.
 
Likewise, I've been using my Raymarine X5 control to drive the Pelagic ram for about a year and a half I think. I had to spend a lot of time tweaking the settings on the X5 after I sent it in for some sort of repair, but that was with the Raymarine ram. It's working pretty well now with either the Raymarine or Pelagic ram, except that it tacks rather slowly. I guess a little more tuning is in order.
 
If you tell the Raymarine the hardover time is 10-12 sec's (instead of 5 sec), the Pelagic ram will act more like the Raymarine ram and your tacks will be about right. With the EV-200 (not sure about the X5) you can't have a rudder reference in the system though, or changes to hardover time are ignored.

Understood about liking your boat. It's like looking at other women... and I better leave it at that.
 
I ordered a Pelagic system last week for my Olson 29. Have had good comms with Brian with lots of questions, patient man.
Dave
 
I just finished installing the Pelagic autopilot on Ronin, my Olson29. Went in without a hitch and worked great this weekend. I've posted a video on YouTube look up Olson 29 Ronin for a quick look at the Pelagic in action.
 
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