Autopilot for Hobie?

Is it possible to put an autopilot on a Hobie? I want to use it for long distance, offshore sailing. Does anyone have experience with this?

What is your idea of long distance off shore sailing?? I think the autopilot takes away of what the Getaway was designed for....active sailing...the getaway would not be my boat of choice for long distance off shore sailing..

Would like to sail 100-200miles along shoreline in shallow waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The shore is soft mud so I can beach it at any time. Wave heights are only 1-2'.

wow.....thats a good distance....have fun, let us know how it goes.....

The concept of an autopilot is interesting and the Getaway is a well balanced boat (i.e. you can easily let go of the tiller in light winds and control it by simply moving forward or backward on the trampoline or one hull).

As all cats the Getaway often moves at high speeds and you end up close to the apparent wind for a wide range of angles to the real wind. This means that traditional mechanical systems that rely on change of angle to the apparent wind wouldn't work (so my theory goes; I haven't tested it).

However, due to the excellent balance of the Getaway, the solution may be as simple as to bungie the tiller crossbar with some fine adjustment to reach the right balance.

Let us know how your experiments turn out!

Have a bud who did this on his windrider 16 used a device called a ST1000+ and GPS (Garmin 12). did a 32 hour trip. looks like it should be able to be addapted to a hobies tiller.

I think the ST1000 is one of the Raymarine standard sailboat autopilots, isnt it?

How did he power it?

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Alot of the windrider 17 guys are packing small electric motors because it is easy to hide the batteries in the bilge. But i asked him and i'll get back to you. It would be interesting to see how much power it needs over time.

edit - Solar panels! Got a few pictures most are too big and poorly taken, But the first few shots you can see his solar banks hanging off the tail. And like i said he had a small battery onboard to store in.

Thats one cool thing about the windriders is they have the storage in em. My 17 can hold cargo in the belly to feed an army! But you could still probably mount solar cells on the getaway somewhere.


http://windrider.bonprix.com/

To all those interested...I mounted an autopilot on my Getaway along with a GPS nav system and nav lights. The battery (gel) is mounted in a Samsonite suitcase and clipped to the center of the tramp. The solar panel is on top of the suitcase. I used trailer connections protected with mink oil for easy quck connect/disconnect. It works like a charm up to about 8 knots, then I have to shut off the autopilot since I need to steer to keep from capsizing.

I have photos if someone can tell me where to post them.