Florida Offshore Multihull Association
Ericson 38 Below-decks Autopilot Installation
By Capt Ron
The following photos illustrate the installation of a RayMarine below decks auto pilot in my Ericson 38 Kismet …
The first photo is a view of the rudder quadrant from forward looking aft. The drive unit is the big black tube like structure to starboard. FWIW, with the pivot pin at 10” from the center of the rudder shaft, the pivot swings through 13.5” … thus I had to go with a Type II linear drive (which can travel 16”) instead of the Type I Linear drive (which only travels 12”). Of course a Type II Linear drive must be coupled with an S3 computer because of the heavier wire, circuitry and fuses needed for the Type II drive. A Type I drive is strong enough for a boat the size of the E38 just doesn’t’ swing far enough. The Type II drive is a bit of overkill power-wise but maybe it will last a little longer.
I made the aluminum plate out of ¼” stock to provide a mounting place for the stud that connects the ram to the quadrant. Eight ¼-20 machine bolts with nylocs hold the plate to the quadrant. The plate also holds the ball socket swivel for the rudder position indicator (the small rod just behind the ram) … Note the bracket bolted to the starboard bulkhead to hold the rudder position sensor.
The pivot must be placed 10” from the center of the rudder shaft (center bottom of the shot). Unfortunately, the Merriman Yacht Specialties pedestal system uses and integral center rudder stop and the bolt that holds the pivot pin in place interfered with the stop … thus I made a spacer out of 1” starboard that gave enough clearance for the nut that holds the pivot in place.
The following photo is the power head of the drive unit mounted in the starboard lazarette. Note the hole in the starboard bulkhead where the ram passes through. (please forgive the instrument panel wiring … future project)
The following picture is a closer look at the bracket I fabricated to hold the power head end of the drive unit. This was fairly easy to make. First I made a cardboard mock up of what I thought I needed. Then I used “door skin” plywood to make the rough shape. Then I epoxied the door skin bracket in place and just laid up epoxy glass over, under and around the door skin bracket. Just guessing here but most of the bracket is about ½” or better solid epoxy … if the door skin rots out of the inside of all that glass… so what?
Note the clearance cut out for removing the pin … also note that the Raymarine swivel bracket is hanging upside down from the epoxy bracket.
This last picture shows the control panel mounted in the starboard side of the cockpit … it would be better to figure out some trick way to mount it in the pedestal, I suppose… but I was in a hurry… to go sailing … what else?
