Raymarine S1000 AutoPilot good for a larger houseboat?

[All about Houseboats]

Good day folks, I see that this is an excellent forum and am hoping someone with experience with AutoPilots can help?

My questions is about installing a Raymarine S1000 AutoPilot on a 40 foot houseboat with a single 4 cylinder 140 hp inboard, with hydraulic steering (Wagner). His boat does have a dual helm steering station.

I am trying to help my neighbor who has a 40 foot aluminum houseboat, with a single hydraulic ram that has 6.4 cu in of fluid (which meets Raymarines requirements)

The issue may be the size of the houseboat since they recommend a 25 ft maximum length, but the houseboat probably weighs in at 10 or 12,000 lbs.

The houseboat is being used in inland lakes, at @ 5-7 knots, and simply for route following, or point A-B navigation.

He has a chance at getting a S1000 unit, and wonder if it can be installed and give reasonable results?

Any folk have any experience using the Raymarine Wireless S1000 unit on a larger boat and that can share some of their wisdom?

Thanks for any help,


IAN from www.all-about-houseboats.com

[kerno]

I installed one on a Stamas 29 and after frying two pumps and having the electronics re-programmed twice, I finally gave up on it. The basic problem is that the pump is a light duty unit and if it has to do much work, it will overheat and fail. If you water is flat and the unit has a low duty cycle, you may get away with it. I found the lack of a hard interface (there is no user panel with pushbuttons) frustrating since the unit often failed to communicate.