One Girls Ocean Challenge

The last few days have been like Christmas morning.  Opening up packages, marveling at the contents, getting all giddy with all the little parts and pieces has been my fun for the past few days.    has furnished One Girl’s Ocean Challenge with the new Evolution Autopilot system.  There are two new ACU100 autopilots, an EV1 sensor core, GPS unit, controllers and all the fantastic backbone cabling to hook it all up!  Most sailors would be a little apprehensive about setting up a new onboard system just before a big race.  I on the other hand…..am super excited about it!  The previous Raymarine onboard system had worked way way above and beyond it’s task of pushing OGOC over thousands and thousands of miles.  An upgrade was well in order and the new Raymarine system is very exciting!  This pilot functions off of a “back bone” cabling system that runs through the boat with “spur” cables that hook in to the backbone.  This new design reduces a significant amount of cabling throughout the boat and allows me to put the displays anywhere I want.  The new EV1 Sensor Core replaces the traditional gyro compass and constantly feeds data back to the computer head based on 9 axis of rotation.  It also requires almost no calibration upon setup!  Then, the system continuously learns how the boat moves in different conditions and slurps up the information into its database.

Here’s the previous computer heads.  OGOC has two completely independent autopilot systems.  That way, if one fails, the other one is ready to put in play.  Twice now in my racing, I’ve had to switch to pilot #2.  It’s a nice little maze of wires and notes written throughout the boat of which wires do what…just incase I need to do some emergency surgery on the system!

The new computer heads take up significantly less space.  The cabling system will also be greatly reduced once the installation is complete.

The controllers (wind, boat speed and depth and autopilot)

have also been changed out for the new P70 autopilot controller, i60 wind controller and i50 depth and speed controller.  The displays are beautifully clear and consume less power!

Ultimately, the whole boat’s wiring has been explored.  It’s been a very good exercise.  The wiring on the boat was fantastically done by the previous owner, but it was uncharted territory for me….literally!  Now I’m building a proper schematic of the system.  It’s an awesome tool for the “just incase” moments onboard!