Following Sea - Tracker
Tuning the Autopilot response
The autopilot is made up of an electronic compass, a controller, and an arm - a kind of piston that attaches to the steering quadrant. The response is how quickly the system moves the rudder back and forward to keep the boat on track. I'm writing about this as we went through a set of setting cables, this can be unnerving when you are out sailing on the ocean and suddenly have no steering, but that's another story. Anyway, we are not the only ones to see broken steering cables. So what's the issue? It could be wear and tear, but we have now done more than double the miles on the new cables than we had on the old ones, and they are still in good shape, so we must be doing something else right. We are careful to keep the right amount of tension on the cables. Too tight and the steering will feel stiff, too loose and the cables could slip out their tracks. We keep them greased where they run through pulleys and the quadrant, but the main thing we do is balance the boat, and t...
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