We recently finished a long-planned upgrade of the nav electronics, including autopilot.  We went with a Furuno NavNet system: radar, autopilot, fishfinder, 2nd depth finder, etc.  Believing in redundancy where it makes sense and doesn't break the bank, most systems are redundant except for the radar.  We use the Cap'n on a dedicated machine for primary charting, but are glad to have the Furuno plotter as a backup.
Since the old Autohelm 6000 worked perfectly, we just installed the Furuno 'pilot right along with it.  The two co-exist without fuss, and we ended up using our "backup" on the trip home from the electronics installer, since the new 'pilot had a bad board.  (We had been away from the home dock for 2 months and didn't want to wait another few days for it to be replaced there.)

As far as helm seating goes, we have a moveable chair which is nice for the ditch when hand-steering is needed for long stretches, but it's normally tucked out of the way.  I either stand at the wheel because I'm docking or doing tight maneuvers, or we sit on the settee behind the nice big table with our autopilot remote(s), VHF RAM mikes, etc.  It feels safer there when offshore or when the boat is moving around too much - and we have our paper charts, binocs, radio, as well as great visibility to the radar and chartplotter screens, as well as the GPS, and all the rest of the toys.

    YMMV, Robin

--
Robin Roberts
M/V Adventures - DeFever 49 Pilothouse
"When I step on my boat, I'm already where I want to be." - Al Golden

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Before buying our Nordhavn 43 we created a spreadsheet with prices for
various options and equipment. One of the first things we did was sort by
price and start evaluating. The sorted list revealed the biggies were the
active fin stabilizers, electronics (radar, autopilot, SSB), flybridge, wing
engine, generator, A/C, diesel heat, paravanes, and bow thruster (you can
see what we actually got on one of our blog posts). After those big ticket
items there was a big price drop for other things such as extra 110 outlets,
handrails, some deck hardware, anchor, etc. Except for the pilot chair. We
thought was an obvious typo from the price list: $5k for a chair? For that
price this chair better automatically scrub the bottom of the boat every
Wednesday and transform into an outboard for the dinghy.

Anyway, we tried out various chairs and even considered bolting down a bar
stool. We were just about to bypass the chair until we found the Stidd
narrow version (500N). It really did feel better than all the others that we
tried. Then we got to spend time underway on another Nordhavn 43 with a
500N, and it was great.

In the end we splurged and got the chair. People have summed it up already:
It can be very nice in many circumstances, but you can get away without it.
It is the one item we feel embarrassed to tell people how much it cost. Even
compared with other "marine" pricing out there, we feel the pilot chair is
an anomaly and in a class by itself.

--
Eric & Christi Grab
Kosmos (Nordhavn 43-18) http://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog