Who's Driving?

Andy says that George is the name for airplane auto-pilots so that's the name we use for our auto helm. Yep - you got it, a cruise control for our sailboat. It's great to be able to let go of the tiller to manage sails, eat some lunch, get a look around, review the chart, etc. We launched the spinnaker on our cruise through Merchants Row on Thursday towards Swans Island and George was on the help while we managed all the lines/spinnaker pole.

I think a lot of single handed sailors use these. Ours came with the boat when we purchased it last summer - otherwise we probably wouldn't own one. It's an Autohelm ST1000. A little undersized for our boat as it turns out, but does fine in the light to medium air we deploy it in. It connects from the cockpit combing to a pin on the top of the tiller. You just point the boat in the direction you want to go. Drop George onto the pin and hit "Auto". He will maintain the compass course you are on. All the different buttons let you adjust the compass heading up or down in 1 degree or 10 degree increments. If you hit the 1 and 10 degree buttons together he will turn 100 degrees in that direction - enabling you to tack or jibe.

We're enjoying having George on board.