not a good idea when going far.
I would like to have a windvane to back up our Autohelm, but were unable to get a Windpilot to work
Our former boat was a pig to steer, but we got the Monitor to work fine (it was Monitor serial 038, with several weak spots, since fixed in the design)
Our current boat is VERY light to steer, yet the Windpilot never worked, despite several mods,
we gave up and installed dinghy davits aft.

Only solution for us is a spare autopilot.
Concerning power, that is a minor issue. Our autohelm averages 2 amps, and has always steered well in the 30,000 miles we have run it.

Raymarine cheerfully fixed the only two problems we had under warranty, over 7 years ago.