And I know those reading this forum will correct me. But one of the comments made was that AP's have significantly changed in the last decade or two (partly because of the large single handed boat) and yet you admit Alpha is a capable piece of gear and hasn't changed. Seems like someone is having it both ways.

Never said any elecronic AP was a toy. I've always indicated that modern day cruisers have an over reliance on electronic gadgetry. Without GPS there would be IMHO 80% less cruisers out here. And before someone asks me if I'm in the 80%; we cruised our first boat all over the N Caribbean with a sextant and handbearing compass. After a few years we were lucky enough to afford a "cheapo" Loran but that signal degraded in parts of the Bahamas and in the Yucatan so we were back to basics.

If Alpha shuts down to go cruising then the support your friends received was luck, luck that the Alpha people were not out cruising. And it is good they weren't. I don't know if all the Alpha parts are off the shelf or not and maybe they could have had replacements from somewhere else but still......

My nickname for years was Damn Dave and that moniker still fits. But the Silver Spoon was for people that have a unit like a NKE AND a Windvane. In reality all cruisers have silver spoons compared to the rest of these surviving in the world. And I do freely admit that with boats like Cat's and Large (silver spoon Mono's ) you need an electronic AP. With boats that surf an electronic AP may be the only thing. With a boat like Paul L's new one I believe either will work but that is Paul's choice. Maybe the Outbound will reach surf speeds but it's hull speed is 8 kts and change and I doubt it will hold over 10 kts. I will be interested in his 24 hour runs.

One thing I do wonder is why one can't run a AP from a computer like the Mac that has built in gyros? Wind / compass info could always be plugged in via a USB leg.

Oh, and you can always expect better from me, but i doubt you'll often get it.

I'm from the Popeye generation and I always liked his line... "I am what I am and that's all that I am"!

Ciao