Auto Pilots??

[SVJourney]

Anyone have any information or experience with the CPT cockpit autopilot?

We've used the CPT all the way across the Pacific now and have some good experiences with it.

Pluses are: 
Will steer you in a storm
Is reliable
Costs only $2100 USD for a 365 including spare belt and pins
Installs in about an hour plus wiring (only + and - wires to hook up)

Minuses are:
Poor algorithms.  It tends to wander off course too much(up to 10 degrees makes sailing close hauled a lot harder to point effectively), our X-5 held a better course as the Raymarine has a better computer.

Strictly point and set.  There are no track or wind following options.

No lighting.  On a night watch you have to use a flashlight or adjust by Braille. But we got used to the Braille method quickly so it wasn't much of a problem.

There's nothing wrong with the X-5 (EV100), its just the drive unit that tends to fail. We sailed over 10k miles with one  You can purchase the X-5 and a spare drive unit for the price of the CPT.  It won't steer you in a storm but we just lie ahull or heave to anyways. You do have to keep your helm balanced as it won't handle a lot of weather helm for very long. This made us reef down earlier than we would otherwise.  And you get all the bells and whistles such as a lit display and track following.

As far as power, the CPT uses marginally less power that the Raymarine.

[Richard]

I bought a SIMRAD WP-30 some years ago.  It is a wheel autopilot.  It has worked very well and is reliable.  Not sure if they still make one like this.

Richard