Autopilot rant

[rsmith]

So maybe it's just me but in the last few years I've had more near misses from boats with no one at the helm. With all this automation I have to wonder if anyone can actually steer a straight line anymore. I remember as a kid the old man teaching me about over correcting and holding a straight course. I just have to wonder if all these automated crutches have put a bunch of incompetent people out on the high seas.

 

[34Hatt]

So maybe it's just me but in the last few years I've had more near misses from boats with no one at the helm. With all this automation I have to wonder if anyone can actually steer a straight line anymore. I remember as a kid the old man teaching me about over correcting and holding a straight course. I just have to wonder if all these automated crutches have put a bunch of incompetent people out on the high seas.

No I think they are just Incompetent with or with out

 

[jpk55]

How many can plot a course, splice a line, tie a bowline? All I have to do is watch
some of these "boaters" try to dock. A check book and a bad idea comes to mind.

 

[Pascal]

Brokers always emphasize how modern electronics make it so easy to operate a bigger boat. I cringe when I see a broker telling a buyer how the joystick on an ips boat will allow anyone even a kid to dock the boat. Or how remote controls let you operate the boat from anywhere... Or how the autopilot can be linked to the GPS and tak you to your destination all on its own

Scary. Stupid.

I have never even linked an AP to GPS. I use the AP but only to hold a heading that I set. Nothing more

 

[Boatsb]

Brokers always emphasize how modern electronics make it so easy to operate a bigger boat. I cringe when I see a broker telling a buyer how the joystick on an ips boat will allow anyone even a kid to dock the boat. Or how remote controls let you operate the boat from anywhere... Or how the autopilot can be linked to the GPS and tak you to your destination all on its own

Scary. Stupid.

I have never even linked an AP to GPS. I use the AP but only to hold a heading that I set. Nothing more

Technology can work if set up correctly. I can program a system to plot the course by using draft, height and other criteria so that it avoids hazards. Some people cant do that themselves. The real answer is to properly verify the route. Neither the human or the tech should be trusted alone.

 

[magnawake]

I have known two different sail boats that have plowed over channel markers and caused damage because they set the auto pilot and wasn't paying attention. They ran slap over the buoy. I very seldom turn mine on unless i'm in a big sound or off shore. One kid I went fishing with was impressed at my ability to find a fishing wreck after our GPS bit the dust. I showed him how to look at a chart and figure heading and calculate time and distance and speed. It was just elementary stuff, but to him he was shocked I could do it. I say we are raising ignorant kids and not teaching them what they should know. Remember not so long ago a bunch of 20 year old guys right out of Texas A&M put a man on the moon with using a slide rule. They dont make them like that any more.

 

[Fanfare]

What's a slide rule?

 

[Avenger]

Here's one: Wait for the kid in front of you to clear the landing spot before you take your turn.

 

[magnawake]

What's a slide rule?

You know.....I know you know. I only have a little Whiz Wheel experience. No Slide rule. Ha Ha.

 

[Pascal]

I still have one

The other day I saw the marina employee take a calculator to figure out $1270 - $500. Had to do it twice.

 

[Freeebird]

I use AP for point to point, straight line navigation, and there is no way you can manually maintain as precise a heading by steering the boat manually unless it is almost dead calm. I really can't see using one that's interfaced as to run a route. I mean how lazy can you get?

As for leaving the helm, no way.

 

[31FlyCruzr]

I was fishing on the hook in delaware bay 15 years ago and a 50-60 foot boat was bearing down on us, no one visible on the bridge, I asked my father in law if he had a horn, and he did I started blowing the aerosol can horn while looking for a knife to cut the anchor line, a guy shows up on the bridge waving his hands in disgust at us, and turned to avoid running us over. Thank god the tide had us facing him!

 

[Walter P]

I still have my old Acu-Math 500 Mannheim type on my desk and once in a while just for fun, I like to play with it. Not as good or as fast at modern computers, but they never get sick or run out of battery. I guess I'm really showing my age, since I bought mine in the early 60's.

Walt

 

[GaryNW]

Yeah, its not really the AP's fault, its the idiot. Trolling a few years back, many boats fishing a "spot". Isee a SB obviously returning from the San Juans to Seattle, cutting thru the middle of the fishing boats. I have the binocs on him for about 10 minutes. No one topside at all. I turn to avoid collision, but a 22' tin boat doesn't realize what is going on and are freaking as the SB bears down on them. I just lay on the Hatt air horn, no 5 blasts, no VHF, just F-ing lay on the horn. Soon a couple appears from below and decides to steer. What do we suppose they were doing down below? The 22' tin boat saluted me! One of many similar experiences.

Gary

 

[Pascal]

In all fairness many boats have lower helm stations and with the modern dark slopped glass you can't really see if anyone is there.

 

[MikeP]

I saw a wrecked boat at our previous marina that had hit a day marker because the pilot had gone below "briefly" to grab something and ended up in a conversation with two passengers. The conversation took a little longer than he had planned... The AP was just running the route as dialed in...

On another one when I lived in AK, a guy in Prince William sound ran aground in the fog because he had told the autopilot to nav to a grid coord. Unfortunately, there was a spit of land between where he was and that coord...

But, as noted neither event was caused by the AP, which just did its job. I can't imagine leaving the helm unmanned for any period at all. APs don't know about other boats, crab pots, floating debris, etc.

 

[34Hatt]

I saw a wrecked boat at our previous marina that had hit a day marker because the pilot had gone below "briefly" to grab something and ended up in a conversation with two passengers. The conversation took a little longer than he had planned... The AP was just running the route as dialed in...

On another one when I lived in AK, a guy in Prince William sound ran aground in the fog because he had told the autopilot to nav to a grid coord. Unfortunately, there was a spit of land between where he was and that coord...

But, as noted neither event was caused by the AP, which just did its job. I can't imagine leaving the helm unmanned for any period at all. APs don't know about other boats, crab pots, floating debris, etc.

No they don't know just like many so called captains out there
If they did the wouldn't leave the helm!

 

[SEVEN]

Turn them in to the coast guard. Someone has to be at the helm a least watching for other boats and logs etc. Stupid boaters.

 

[SeaQ]

I have had 2 calculators In my life not give the right answers I new because I had already done it roughly in my head and what it said wasn't close .
As for autopilots there great for following a course as long as you are adjusting the course manually . Once 15 years ago I remember the old man going fully auto scared the S out of me.
after that never again.
Not the auto pilots fault but the person in charge.

I remember taking a smoke break when going up Johnston straight (BC) and hitting a log only to look back at the bridge to see my brother and Dad away from the bridge looking at some big boat passing with binoculars.
People ----I quit smoking and assumed the captain job since then