There is little magic in Autopilot technology. The basics are pretty much a matter of simple math. Most of what we argue about in all our sailoring is at rock bottom, simple math. Fitting sails is a math problem. Picking an autopilot is more math. Picking sails to motivate a boat is a matter of how much wind pressure times sail area, and where to place the result. Picking an autopilot is a matter of how much horsepower to move the rudder, at what speed. If you select enough power to swing the rudder from hard over to hard over in 10 seconds, that is very fast; 30 seconds would be considered very slow. If you know how fast the gears turn or the pump, pumps you can estimate the hard over times. Your autopilot system will never be any faster than this elementary set of power versus required effort. But, there is little point in having fast hard over times, if the compass (heading reference) is not stable enough to work at the speed with which the rudder can be worked. In other words, cheap compasses won't work well in other than calm conditions, even if the rudder can be worked from side to side very rapidly. There is no free lunch in autopilots. It takes power, electricity or whatever to run the motor that turns the rudder. The faster you go the more power it takes, factoring in the size of rudder. The cheaper the compass (heading sensor) the less effective it will be and that effectiveness will deteriorate as sea conditions increase. These 2 items make or break any autopilot system. The rest of the system, the control box, remotes, indicators, computers, is just window dressing. We are the sailors, you know where the math lies, the sin is thinking that you can flank the physics. Regards, Mike _____________________________________ Capt. Mike Maurice Beaverton Oregon(Near Portland)