For the record, I have sailed around the world and a total of over 125,000 miles using autopilots and in all that time I have hand steered due to autopilot failure less than 12 hours.

I have seen many failures and carry a lot of spare parts. I have fixed other sailors autopilots from parts I have had on board. I have also seen many broken windvanes on OPBs.

Neither solution is perfect.

If you have a windvane and have to power for a few days you had better have an autopilot or a tillerpilot to control your windvane. If you ever end up in washing machine waves you had better have a good autopilot. I have been in both situations and the autopilots steered fine.

I have two, hot switchable to the same drive. One is a 25 Y.O. design and one is only five years old. The drive can be swapped in about 15 minutes with a spare.

I know Ed and Ellen. I line handled for them on their Panama Canal trip and they line handled for me. I am surprised that Ed would make a comment like that.