My Simrad TP32 is also an excellent pilot. It holds a good course, steers through a tack well. A bit noisy, I don't think they are as refined as the Raymarine, but are powerful and simple. It holds the S&S in a strong breeze with a quartering sea, the least favoured point of sail so not an easy task.

As far as I am aware Raymarine and Autohelm are the same company.

Maybe one is the Falcon and the other the Fairmont and are American.

Simrad is owned by Navico (Swedish or Norwegian) which also owns Brooks and Gatehouse (top of the line), North Star (formerly Navman from Kiwiland) Lowrance and MX Marine.

Simrad has commercial and yachting divisions and appears to sit in the mid range of quality.

I think I will be buying Simrad as Raymarine and Autohelm have not enjoyed a reputation for quality over the years.

@ hangtime. You seem to be enjoying the life of Riley. How do you fund it?????

I had a Raymarine ST2000 on my Noelex and thought that it was pretty good. On present boat have a Raymarine Smartpilot which is effectively a computer that uses a fluxgate compass for heading info to drive a powerfull electric ram mounted onto the steering quadrant. This thing really rocks! it has a gyro stabilizer built in and smartlearn function so that it feels the roll and yaw in a seaway and learns to improve its steering from the last wave. A good helmsman can get a higher top speed by choosing which wave to surf but the autopilot will maintain a higher average speed, particularly at night. Best results are obtained by trimming the sails for a set windspeed/wind angle and then using the remote to steer up or down to suit the wind shifts and gusts but let the pilot actually steer the course that you choose. This works particularly well under spinnaker where you can sail along with the luff just rolling . We call it flying by wire.Must admit that I have spent some watches sitting at the nav table with radar and AIS on lookout just sailing the boat by instruments. Got to remember to pop your head up every 15 minutes for a visual though.

I'm extremely happy with my Raymarine SmartPilot X-10, which steers accurately in all conditions (so far). The drive unit for my system is a rotary drive unit driving the steering column (not a tiller unit). Full write-up of my installation can be found at:
blog.arribasail.com/2013/01/tech-arriba-gets-autopilot.html

Disagree with you there Cisco the Lord of seabreeze forums!
When cruising the Aotopilot goes on when the anchor comes up and goes off when the anchor goes down and speaking to other cruisers most of them are the same.

I have to agree with Hangtime on this one. While I do enjoy steering the boat while racing, on a cruising day the autopilot does the work while I enjoy the scenery.

the part of sailing i enjoy the most is steering. i think thats why so many new people get in to trouble when it gets nasty. they cant steer their boat. know this will cause a stir but.... i sail both monos, cats and tris