We are preparing Mirador for another extended cruise to begin this summer. The two pieces of equipment that I don’t think I can live without in the 2000 miles from here to La Paz, BCS are radar and electric autopilot. We have a Raytheon R20XX (24” dome 4kw antenna) with a 9” green/black CRT radar system. Our electric autopilot is a Autohelm (Raymarine) Type 1 linear drive motor, Type 300 course computer, and ST 6000 control head,

We installed both systems new in spring 1995 and they both work perfectly. Mirador has motored and sailed over 12,000 miles in the last 15 years. The radar says it has over 1500 operating hours on it. The electric autopilot has over 3500 hours on it.

How long does an analog radar system last? What components fail first?

How about that long suffering autopilot – does it have many hours left in it?

I hate to replace a perfectly good systems but I really don’t want to loose either the radar or the autopilot 100 miles west of Cape Mendocino and even more, I don’t want to have to replace complicated systems while on the boat in Mexico – been there – done that – PITA!

I would appreciate any experience you have with older analog radar and older electronic autopilots. Other opinions will be carefully considered.