After 900 nautical miles plus from Mystic, CT to Florida mostly offshore in winds up to 32 knots and significant wave height nine feet. However, the majority of the offshore sailing found us in winds of 10-20 knots and seas three to five feet.
The new autopilot drove 99.9% of the trip offshore and performed flawlessly even in the gusty and surfing conditions where boat speed could increase from 7 knots to 14 knots in seconds. We found response level 1 on the Raymarine 6002 control head was sufficient under most conditions and was desirable as it ignored repetitive movements thereby minimizing power use. Once things got into the twenty knot true wind speed range and the seas had time to build up we used response levels 2 and 3 for superior course keeping.
