“Let’s take a break during navigation while Autopilot follows the route, control it with remote control!
Story
Preface:
I love sailing alone because when a man is on the sea with his sailing boat he got everything he needs to evolve to a greater level. Sailing in raw sea with bad weather can be very hard but if he choose good weather days with sun and nice wind the enjoy will be at maximum.
Happiness means infinite horizons, perfect athletic technics, optimal choices, but also human things as a good coke and a tasty sandwich! Exactly in this time come in help Autopilot: it works instead of you meanwhile you have your 5:00pm tea & biscuits on the sea. :-)
What Autopilot can do for you:
A sailing boat does not have an engine and cannot go along a programmed path from harbour to the beach, then to the fishing spot, turn around the Lighthouse and back, all itself, it cannot.
Whole work is done by the Sailor, we have to understand it at this point: trimming sails, take under control weather and the wind source/speed, harden or release ropes, mind other boats, decide direction and steering… When the Sailor decide for a break, let say just 10 seconds or up a few minutes (the famous “tea time”), he switches Autopilot on. In a cup of seconds its GPS acquire position, speed and direction of the boat and is able to mantain the direction (route). The steering system, a stick connected to the rudder, usually moved by the expert Sailor hands, now is under control by Autopilot through the Stepper Motor connected to it by pulleys and ropes.
Control the rudder is a continuous work of fine or gross tuning. Smaller (lighter) is the boat and greater will be the changes of direction factors influences it: sea waves, direction and pressure of the wind, shifting of the weight on board by Sailor movements, sea currents. But the Sailor is always awake, even with autopilot on, making changes to the actual route by the way of remote control: there are 4 buttons on it, labelled +1 -1 +10 -10, for small or big changes in degrees, increasing or decreasing the value. These buttons are present on the Autopilot too, the green (right) and the red (left) ones. The blue button (middle) is for activate or deactivate the Autopilot, the pause. It is also a black button for setting up parameters in memory.”