Upgrade to hydraulic or electric steering systems

[jason808]

I just finished installing a furuno autopilot in my 208. I used a reversible piston adjustable octopus pump. The pump is nice because it has a shutoff valve as part of the pump and the flow is adjustable.
I bought the octopus kit
Octopus 30" Hose & Fitting Kit Including Orb & NPT Helm Fittings

I was not able to use the tees from the kit because I did not have room behind the helm. The hoses in the kit are only 30” which really limits where you can put the pump.
I ended up installing mine exposed in the cabin but would have been nicer to install it under the seat in the cabin. If I did it again, I would have chosen a location for the pump and ordered custom length hoses.

Here are pictures of my finished installation in case it helps. It also shows barely any room behind the helm because the electrical wires.


To purge the hydraulic lines I used this kit

Bubble Purge™ G2 Hydraulic Steering Bleed and Purge Kit OST-PBB.001

In Stock! We created the Bubble Purge G2 to offer you an easy to use tool that makes hydraulic steering maintenance and repair a 1 person job. Our patented kit is a perfect fit for SeaStar, BaySta…

outboardst.com

It made getting the bubbles out really easy and a one person job. There are cheaper ways, but this made it nice and simple.

 

[Chris275]

Years ago, I added a Ratheon autopilot to my old Albin trawler and it was a lifesaver for longer runs down the Chesapeake Bay. Bought a 2004 GW 228 for fishing, but could not justify the cost to add an autopilot to it. One of the best boats we ever had. Traded it in on a GW 275 in August, and was able to load it with a number of options, including Garmin Reactor 40 power steering to ease the steering on the twin F200s, as well as a Garmin autopilot for the very reason you have -- to ease the long runs and for single handling when trolling. I also added the wireless hand control to manage the steering while dealing with fishing. These are all tied into the 1243 chart/plotter.

Will not likely ever buy another boat, but if I did, would include both again on one. We fish both the Chesapeake and the Florida Keys and usually go out 15 to 20 miles for Dolphin and whatever bites. Planning to add outriggers, so working a number of rigs will certainly be easier with the autopilot. Dealing with grandkids and skiing will certainly be less strain with the power steering. The neat thing about this new rig is that I will be able to actually set a course via waypoints and steer it with the autopilot (so the manual says), but I haven't tried that yet. Still breaking it in with about 20 hours.

Might be tough to justify the cost of both for a 208. Power steering was about $3k and the pilot was $5k. Doing it myself would have been an impossibility for me, given how complex the hoses, pumps and locations were on the 275. I am just not that agile at my age.

If you are also looking for a hardtop, you might just look for a used 228. Not made any more (a huge mistake for Grady White!), but quite a few good used ones around. Mine was a very cherry boat, except for the blown engine, but the buyer got a hell of a deal for it with a solid new/used Yamaha.

Tough decisions to make, but hey, its only money! I'd get what you want now, and not look back. Good fishing!

 

[seasick]

Never seen a Boomer sub but I can tell you our ferries have a prop at each end. So they don't turn around. They use the front prop as the brakes, which is the wash you see in the front. I'm pretty sure the ferry could have stopped if he wanted to but he had the right of way. Amazing how tough that fiberglass boat is right!

Some tugs and 'non directional' ferries use a type of propulsion called a Voith Schneider propeller. It allows propulsion in any direction, can allow the vessel to turn on it's center and is quite an interesting device. Look it up.

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[hanke777]

I think Octopus or SeaStar make kits to add a second hydraulic helm/autopilot pump. West Marine/Hodges/BOE/etc. sells them. They should come with a few different types of ORB fittings and hoses (2 pressure rated and 1 clear/return) to allow you to try a couple different configurations.

As wrxhoon mentioned, it might be helpful to try the tees both at the helm and the autopilot pump and see what layout works for your layout. Consider placement of the autopilot pump, autopilot computer, NMEA backbone, power/fuse panel, and heading sensor since the cable lengths aren’t too long.

Also, make sure to test the system out before finalizing the position if the heading sensor. Might even be a good idea to get a spare NMEA2K cable in case the heading sensor works better located a bit away from the backbone.

Sounds like experience speaking Thank you!