T&T: Auto pilot "hunting"

[Dave Friedrich]

I have an old Simrad on my Monk 36 which never veered off course,  
until a transit of one of the long straight sections of the Erie  
Canal. Any time we would pass under one of the massive steel railroad  
bridges it would veer violently to Stbd! It took three or four of  
these near disasters to at least put the AP on standby while under a  
bridge. Only then did I notice the big Ritchie compass swinging wildly  
under every bridge, and I was able to put two and two together. Got a  
good laugh out of that, as well as a good lesson.

dave

On Jan 30, 2009, at 10:24 AM, Bob Owens wrote:

> I have a Raymarine ST 5000 in my tug that every now and then would  
> make
> a hard turn towards the beach. Perplexing until I discovered that it
> only happened when a friend would open the fridge to get a beer. Seems
> that the magnetic gasket would be close to the flux compass when the
> door was opened. I easily solved the problem by getting rid of my  
> friends.
>
> Bob Owens
> TUGLY 26' Nordic Tug
> Madisonville, LA
>

Dave Friedrich
Monk 36
ELIZABETH
Belhaven, NC
dave.friedrich at gmail.com