To answer two questions at once...

We installed an ST70 with an X10 linear drive unit in November of 2008. It was one of the first production units installed (we had to pull strings to get it - it wasn't in the retail market yet).

From a use perspective... We love it, but we don't have a lot to compare it against (except our old wheelpilot which we completely destroyed during a heavier passage). We've used it in 15-20' following seas and 40kt winds when the waves want to push our butt all over the place and it's held us strong (at these times I could barely hold the wheel myself). I've used it running in front of 70mph winds with a double reefed main and almost no waves. In retrospect, I did use it in a way I shouldn't have at one point. We rounded Cape Fear on our way to Charleston and at 1am started getting hit hard with 45kt winds and 12-15ft seas. We decided to duck into Cape Fear to get out of the storm. While in the channel and approaching the inlet, the waves were so big that we couldn't count the flashes on the buoys to figure out which one was which. While holding on for dear life, I programmed a course into our chartplotter, slaved the autopilot to the chartplotter and entered the inlet under autopilot and GPS. Thinking back I realize that 1) I should never have entered the inlet in that weather, especially because on top of the storm there was a wind vs. current situation, and 2) If my GPS fix was off at all, we would have been TOTALLY screwed. I don't think I would do it again. The point, however, is that it worked wonderfully in some mega-confused seas and high winds while motorsailing (and let me tell you - entering the Cape Fear inlet for the first time in the pitch black darkness was not my idea of a good time).

With regards to turnaround on fixing the units... being a first-run unit, we had an issue with the black box portion of the X10. Every time we'd power it on we'd have a rate gyro failure message. We'd have to flip it off and back on about 20 times for the error to go away (once it worked, we never had a problem with our course). When we were in Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas I had to go back to the US for business, so I called up a Raymarine dealer where I was traveling to and asked them for warranty service. I described what was going on (I would only be up for 2 days and then had to go back to the Bahamas). I called them up about 4 business days before I went to the US and they had a brand new unit boxed up at their facility by the time I arrived. I gave them the old one, took the new one and everything was great. We have not had a problem since. I am curious, however, if they've updated the unit at all since I bought it.

We do like the ST70 control head since we can display additional information on it beyond autopilot info. My only issue with it is that it takes a lot of button presses to get it dimmed enough at night to minimize night vision issues. The only other thing I'd love to see is the ability to use the gyro on the X10 for MARPA functionality on our C-series chartplotter. It supports MARPA on the G-series, but not the E and C.

Chris
s/v/ Pelican
Passport 40