Talk:Self-steering gear

Last paragraph
Im not sure the second to last paragraph really belongs here, it seems off topic, and properly belongs in an article on single-handing. "The topic of single handed sailors sleeping and hence not maintaining a 'proper watch for safe navigation' continues to be much discussed. Although this practice appears to be in contravention of maritime law, there has so far been no attempt to prevent it. A pragmatic approach is that such individuals are at least endangering only themselves, since the large cargo vessels that may collide with them while they are asleep typically are not even aware that they have hit something. In addition, radar alarms and the sheer vastness of the ocean mean that the problem is more one of theory than of practice."

Sheet-to-Tiller
I agree partially, the last paragraph contains several wrong assertions and should be freed from those. The sheet-to-tiller selfsteering on sailboats itself definitely is a mecanical sub-type of selfsteering. I hence propose a different hirarchy of the different topics

self-steering, subtypes: electrical / mechanical.

Mechanical self steering, subtypes: servo-pendulum, servo-pendulum with auxiliary rudder, only auxiliary rudder, trim-tab, sheet-to-tiller.

The last paragraph advertizes a special kind of sheet-to-tiller selfsteering with moveable winch platforms and should be separated into a "development" part describing the moveable winch platforms, and a general description of the sheet-to-tiller selfsteering principle. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.255.1.28 (talk) 09:43, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Removed pictures
Please leave the images, or if you don't like them, improve them with a image program. I put in a hell of allot of work in this, and it provides extra content, so why did you remove them ? Thanks KVDP (talk) 17:25, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

84.254.188.2 10:16, 3 August 2007 (UTC)whoknows?

Tempomaat
The ideal chartplotter/self steering gear should probably have a system integrated similar to the tempomaat perhaps include in article —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.245.184.134 (talk) 15:27, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

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The article is far too much focused on sailboats
I actually find this article slightly odd as it is very focused on sailboats and mechanical systems that can be used for sailing. This is not bad in itself, but both commercial ships and fishing vessel have used autopilots (which it is often called today, just like on planes) at least since the 1950s. And the development on them has just like all other navigation systems been enormous. Today the autopilot is only a part of the electronic navigation system. While in the article the only part about development seems to be about sheet to tiller systems for sailboats. --Hallvor (talk) 21:33, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
 * But self-steering gear, the concept described here, is only used for sailboats.
 * If you want autopilot (marine)s, that's a different topic and needs a different article. As it is, it's a minor and unstructured mention in autopilot, which really doesn't belong. But it doesn't belong here. Andy Dingley (talk) 23:27, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
 * OK. I see. I'm just not used to articles about basic technology simply not existing on Wikipedia, as that is something Wikipedia is usually good at. --Hallvor (talk) 23:32, 20 February 2020 (UTC)


 * This article is poorly organized, written, and referenced. However, the scope is clearly about sailboat self-steering gear. The aero-mechanical types were designed to hold a point of sail, which corresponded to a course, as long as the wind didn't change direction. True autopilots hold a course, even a wind shift necessitates a sail adjustment. HopsonRoad (talk) 04:05, 17 February 2020 (UTC)