The Tiller Pilot unit on full lock.

My boat is a long-keeled mid-Sixties classic and although I do try to balance her when sailing so she doesn’t carry much in the way of weather helm, she’s still a heavy boat to steer for long periods, especially if it’s a bit choppy. I’d looked at fitting a wheel (I’d been offered a complete unit along with pedestal and all the linkages and incorporating an auto-helm) but we can’t fit one, as there isn’t space around the rudderstock and tube to fit quadrants and rams.

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Next thing then was to look at tiller pilots. I do wish the manufacturers would get together and agree a standard way expressing performance, and use a standard colouring system for the wiring, especially NMEA feeds.

Trying to compare which unit would best fit and be capable of handling the loads proved a nightmare. It wasn’t easy to ascertain from the various computations of boat length, underwater shape and size just which unit would work – in fact according to the figures in the literature none was ideally suitable for my boat!

So I asked around friends and others in the marina and simply became even more confused. I went to the boat show and talked to the guys on the stands of the two most popular makes, and finally came down in favour of the Simrad TP32 tiller-pilot.

It’s their biggest unit. They told me it would be virtual overkill but I would be hardly likely to wear it out!

I ordered the unit through my local electronics supplier, Precision Navigation of Brantham, Suffolk. The company had previously rewired the boat and had fitted a powerful Actisense Multiplexer to boost NMEA data transmissions to a wider range of instruments and I wanted to link the tiller pilot as well.

The worst job, as always, was running the cables. Fortunately I’ve installed a series of conduits throughout the boat for just this sort of additional wiring. The waterproof multi-pin power/data socket was mounted low down on the port coaming below the height of the side decks with the wiring run back around the back of the cockpit lockers to the main electronics centre behind the starboard-mounted chart table.

Although the plug stands about an inch proud it hasn’t so far caught anybody in the back when sitting in that area of the cockpit when the unit is not connected.

Initially, we fitted the support base on to the cockpit coaming with the tiller end of the thrust ram set on a pin on top of the tiller itself, as we were uncertain of getting clearance from using an under-tiller drop bracket. Because of the need for easy access to lockers and more particularly the one containing the aft bilge pump, we reversed the drive and mounted it on the port side rather the standard starboard side. (Reversing the unit’s operation is a simple procedure).

On trials it worked fine. It took a little while to get lined up and to settle down but it worked. However, under anything other than almost flat calm the action of the steering ram caused the cockpit coaming to flex, which frankly alarmed me. So I bought a drop arm which I bolted through the tiller, removed the base unit from the coaming and mounted it on the cockpit side-deck. It was bolted down with two of the three fixing bolts through a beam and the other through a glued-in pad.

With the ram at full extension, the drop arm was several inches clear of the locker edge. If you need to slam the rudder full over then you’d either be in a situation where you wouldn’t have the tiller-pilot connected or you can simply flip it off the stud and steer by hand. It would however hit your knees if you sit directly opposite the tiller when sailing – I tend to sit slightly forward and reach backwards for the tiller – or up on the coaming side seat with the Friend Tiller extension working.

Fitting the base to the cockpit side deck meant an adaptation of the mounting pillar. I simply cut it down to length, drilled a hole in the end and glued the brass recess cup used for deck mounting into it. The shortened pillar simply screws as before into the deck base plate and sets the unit in a level position. We remove it when the tiller pilot isn’t in use; otherwise someone might get hurt sitting on it!

Now I am able to steer to wind as well as to GPS waypoints, with the signal from the Tacktick masthead unit transmitted via the Multiplexer to the NMEA network. It’ll also accept wind angle data and boat speed data and compass heading supplied by the new instruments. I’ve just installed the Standard Horizon 380i chart plotter and that too is linked through via the Multiplexer.

There are five clustered buttons on the keypad: port and starboard directions, standby/auto mode, tack and nav. Probably the most useful for when you are on watch alone, is the tack button, allowing you to let the tiller pilot turn the boat while you tend the sheets.

A major consideration when I chose the Simrad was that the electronic guts are sealed in an internal box inside the outer casing. It has got wet a number of times, but so far no problems have arisen (the maker claims it’s storm proof, but I don’t normally sail in storms!). It’s also remarkably quiet.

■ The Simrad TP32 Tiller Pilot is available from stockists. Price: £539.99 plus mounting pedestal £54 and tiller drop bracket £34 (all inc VAT). Simrad tel: 01794 510010. Website: www.simrad-yachting.co.uk.