Auto Pilot

[g0tagrip]

I had a Garmin GHP 10 Auto Pilot installed in my 2008 Marlin last week. Not sure how I have survived without one up to now. It is awesome.

 

[bc282]

Congrats :dance
I installed my Ghp10 before last season and absolutely love the AP.
Has been a great addition to the fishing and boating experience, don.t know how I can be without now.
Enjoy!

 

[Doc Stressor]

I'm putting a Raymarine S1000 in my 226 this week. I put an AP on my '86 Grady years ago and it saved me about 50% in fuel consumption and running time when fishing offshore. I have a hard time staring at the GPS steering function when out of sight of land and I'd veer all over the place. They are one of the best investments that you can make as far as electronics go.

My old 226 did not have the SV2 hull and the splash point where the waves would hit the bottom was right at the helm position. We used to set the AP and stand behind the helm seats for a much smoother ride.

 

[ocnslr]

I had a Garmin GHP 10 Auto Pilot installed in my 2008 Marlin last week. Not sure how I have survived without one up to now. It is awesome.

I would recommend electronics in the sequence VHF, chartplotter/sounder, then AutoPilot. Once you have (a good) one, properly set up, you will truly wonder how you managed previously, and why you waited so long.

I installed a Simrad AP12H on our Islander the first year, and then upgraded to a Simrad AP16VF two years ago.

I assume your Garmin GHP is fully interfaced to your chartplotter, and will track to a waypoint, or follow an entire route...

Brian

 

[GulfSea]

I had a Garmin GHP 10 Auto Pilot installed in my 2008 Marlin last week. Not sure how I have survived without one up to now. It is awesome.

Great ain't it! I have the S1000 and use it every trip without fail; if it went out today, there would be another installed by next week. Those without do not know what they're missing. I'll be fishing nearly the entire month of June and will put the tolling pattern function to task in a big way.

 

[g0tagrip]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I had the boat out yesterday again for a raft up, played with the auto pilot some more. I am looking forward to the offshore runs (and the fuel savings). My friend David and I and our sons are fishing the Bay Point 40/40 shootout next month, we are all pumped over the auto pilot and it's trolling patterns.

 

[Salinity Now]

Heck Yeah, auto pilots are awesome!! I Just fixed the SIMRAD AP11 on my 265, never had one before either, it was great to clear the inlet, set up on a route, hit AUTO NAV and away she went, put a pax in the helm chair to watch for traffic and off course and freed me up to rig up rods and be ready as soon as we got to the fishing grounds!!

Cant wait to really fine tune it and learn more functions, went through all the calibration options, but like anything new the more you use it the better you get at making it work for ya.

Id love to see how much theyve improved in the past ten years, but for now Auto Nav & Compass driving is good enough for me to get started!!

 

[Heavy Duty]

Hey Gulfsea what brand of chartplotter are you using with your S1000. I have a Gramin 540 that I have been trying to use with my S1000 and for some reason it keeps telling my "No GPS Fix" when turning it on. The s1000 works in test mode.

Thanks

HD

 

[GulfSea]

Hey Gulfsea what brand of chartplotter are you using with your S1000. I have a Gramin 540 that I have been trying to use with my S1000 and for some reason it keeps telling my "No GPS Fix" when turning it on. The s1000 works in test mode.

Thanks

HD

I'm using 2 Lowrance HDS-8's with an ethernet cable. Every now and then it has trouble on locking on a waypoint but probably 90-93% of the time, it centers the waypoint. One thing that I've found interesting is the unit seems to lock on the route as much as the waypoint. If you keep that in mind it may help figure out if there's something you can try differently. When mine has trouble, I've found if I set "auto" for a straight heading, then "standby" and then "track" it picks up the waypoint/route perfectly?

 

[Gary M]

I used to hand-slog it over to Bimini and beyond in sloppy seas with the 1994 252 Sailfish and when we moved up to the 2001 Marlin I spent a LOT of time researching exactly what A/P would be best for my needs as well as working well with the boat..... to the point of calling Simrad and talking with their Tech Support guys and then had Vero Marine Center (where we've bought all three Gradys!) install the AP 16 before we took delivery.

Now, I just drive (like my recent 5.5 hour trip back from Grand Cay, Abaco, Bahamas) with only an occasional finger-tip correction! I love it that I can make single degree changes as well as 10 degree changes..... virtually without looking down at the contral head.

And for trolling????????????????????? Awesome...........

 

[g0tagrip]

As a follow up we used it for 24 hours straight on the tournament trip. Well worth the investment, ran almost 300 miles including trolling. Worked great, I love it. Oh we did not catch any good fish, just big bonita. But we had fun.

 

[Doc Stressor]

Hey Gulfsea what brand of chartplotter are you using with your S1000. I have a Gramin 540 that I have been trying to use with my S1000 and for some reason it keeps telling my "No GPS Fix" when turning it on. The s1000 works in test mode.

Your S1000 is not getting a signal from your Garmin. Most likely one of your NMEA wire connections is bad or else the unit is not wired correctly. It can be a challenge getting them right since there is no standard color code.

I ran my S1000 for the first time today. It was flawless although a bit noisy. I only burned 30 gallons on a trip where is usually go through 40+.