 RE: Opinions Differences between Simrad AP12- or Ap14
Well, I have the AP-12 and have had it for a few years now. In fact I am sure mine was one of the very first ones made that had the Simrad name on it and the black case. They last.
Anyway as far as I know t he only difference is that the 14 has the numbers on its face, but they certainly aren't necessary for anything. You can carry it around too, and in my opnion that would be utterly irresponsible. You still have an obligation to keep watch when on the auto pilot and how many boats have a better vantage point than the Captain's seat? I just have mine mounted smack in the middle of my dash, a foot in front of my steering wheel and dead center. I use the Auto Pilot all the time. Ours is interfaced with the chartplotter of course so any waypoint I choose can be my target, and in fact that is how we use it to run off shore as well. It will steer that 35~40 miles a lot straighter than I ever could and save me a bit of gas in doing so, and of course if you have to stand down for just a moment you can. I prefer to either rig baits the night before, just stop and do it and get to start fishing a few minutes later, or better yet, take a Ho who knows what he's doing. At least of you're fishing out of Oregon Inlet, Hatteras Inlet, or Rudee Inlet finding a Ho is as simple as posting on the Tidal Fish message board. I like fishing with a partner myself and to tell you the truth I won't go off shore alone. One wrong wave with the boat running in gear and that could very well be the end of the show. I think haveing two people on the boat, each of them perfectly able to operateit, is almost infinitely safer than fishing alone. I had to change a prop once when 40 miles out and I would never have even thought about attempting it if someone else had not been in the boat.
Anyway, back to the auto pilot. The instillation is really straight forward with no tricky stuff at all. You need to mount the fluxgate compass somewhere down in the hull, as low as possible and preferably on the centerline. I screwed mine into the face of a bulkhead right in front of the main fuel tank. You run the attached wire from it up to the control unit where it goes into well marked holes to be held in place by small set screws.
Same thing for the rudder (outboard) position sensor. It clamps to the steering cylinder with stainless hose clamps and then there is some smallbracketry that attaches to the end of the steering rod. Once again there is an attached wire that you run to the contol unit and plug into the holes noted for it.
The pump can be mounted anywhere you want as long as you understand you're going to have to buy hoses to connect it to the system. The motor is strong and its a bit loud, so you might want to give some thought to where you put it. Once its in place you run the lines to close to the control unit but don't hook it up just yet. Once the pump is in place measure for your hoses.
What you are going to do is remove your existing hoses from the back of your steering unit. Then you will screw a T-fitting into the holes where the hoses were connected. Then you will connect the old hoses to one branch of each T-fitting. The new hoses you will have made will connect from that second leg from the T-fitting to the auto pilot's pump. There are two of them one Port and one Starboard. Don't worry about how they are hooked up on the pump side, but put them back on the steering helm unit like you took them off. You'll also need a third hose of the same length as the first two. This one will connect between the back of the reservior of the helm unit and will also connect to the pump, on its center fitting.
So, you hook up the hoses and then get a small battery. like from a motorcycle, lawnmower or something. Fill the reservior at the helm and then take the wires from the pump and hold them to the battery, first one way and then the other for just a couple of seconds at a time. It will pump the hell out of fluid. You'll have to top off the helm unit, maybe a couple of times. You'll also have to hand crank the wheel over back and forth quite a few times to bleed the system but you can take care of all that stuff. The pump then plugs into the control unit like everything else. You have to supply power to the control unit too of course and its no lightweight. I have mine on its own 15 amp circuit breaker.
Oh, on those hoses. Any commercial hydraulics shop can make them up for you, a lot of farm equipment places and any dozer or other heavy equipment parts/repair place can do it. I had mine made by a local place on a saturday morning, took 20 minutes and cost me $45 for the three of them (about 4 feet long).
Once the system is in there is a setup procedure that has you out there running in a large circle after a sequence of buttom presses. After about a full turn and a half it will signal you that the setup 'took' and you are now OK to use the machine. I had to remove mine when I repowered and I drove it without going through the setup routine again. Don't do it, go throught the setup routine. It requires about 5 acres of smooth water and no one to cut you off like jet skiers. Basically you have to turn in one very large circle while going pretty slow (about 5 or 7 knots as I recall) and make about a turn and a half before the compass knows where it is. If you don't do it the boat will zig-zag all over ehll and gone when you try to use the auto pilot.
Thom | 
