J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Tiller pilot

I replaced my Autohelm ST1000+ 3 years ago with the Raymarine X5, and got the remote. This is a great system.

1. The X5 is much stronger and has no problem keeping up with the sail trim where the ST1000 would loose the ability to maintain course.

2. The X5 has it's own compass with roll and pitch sensors. It is amazing how well this works down wind with following seas. It steers a straighter course than I can!

3. If you get the remote, there is no need to mount the head unit topside (e.g. no need to drill a separate hole). I built a small box out of "Starboard" and mounted the display head and remote receiver on it, then screwed it next to the X5 course computer below decks.

4. I've networked this with my TackTick system and Garmin GPS so I can steer by relative wind angle, or GPS waypoints. Here is a link to the schematics.

Here is some stuff I didn't like.

• The connectors are different - means drilling another hole.
• The length is different so it means you need to drill another hole for mounting (on Rhapsody that is on the stbd lazarette surface).