2020-12-19, 07:20 PM
I thought about this years ago, but I was also afraid to actually test it. As you say it will "potentially allow a man overboard to come back in the boat" but there is no guarantee. I'm also afraid it gives a false sense of security.
For bluetooth, or even RF, it just needs a device which pings the AP every second. If the button is pressed it could send a different signal and also a timeout. The wind mode could steer into wind, but it really depends on the boat what the best action to take is. For compass/gps course the autopilot doesn't know which way the wind is, it could maybe guess based on heel, but again it really depends on the boat. Some boats if you try to do this, depending on the traveler or if there is a preventer, the boat will actually start sailing backwards and you may not catch the boat, or further action by the autopilot may be desired to keep the boat in place. Other boats may heave to at a faster speed than you can swim depending on the situation.
So this is not really better than dragging a line behind the boat that if you pull hard enough it breaks a small fishing line and releases the autopilot as well as pulls the rudder hard over, but also with this you have a line to pull yourself to the boat at the cost of the line dragging.
So a better option would be a waterproof remote so that you can still steer the boat back to you. This is more difficult with the sails up if the boat is not self tacking.
If there are other crew, this safety button is more likely to succeed because it would stop the boat right away and possibly wake them but also sound an alarm, and then you would not be far from the boat after falling making the chances of retrieval easier, but I think the locator beacon that transmits gps is still needed for really bad cases.
Or you could do like me and remove all your life lines, never wear a harness and sail without any protection besides the strength of your grip, but I'm now pondering the harness option again. I had several dreams about falling overboard only to wake up on the boat in the middle of the sea.
For bluetooth, or even RF, it just needs a device which pings the AP every second. If the button is pressed it could send a different signal and also a timeout. The wind mode could steer into wind, but it really depends on the boat what the best action to take is. For compass/gps course the autopilot doesn't know which way the wind is, it could maybe guess based on heel, but again it really depends on the boat. Some boats if you try to do this, depending on the traveler or if there is a preventer, the boat will actually start sailing backwards and you may not catch the boat, or further action by the autopilot may be desired to keep the boat in place. Other boats may heave to at a faster speed than you can swim depending on the situation.
So this is not really better than dragging a line behind the boat that if you pull hard enough it breaks a small fishing line and releases the autopilot as well as pulls the rudder hard over, but also with this you have a line to pull yourself to the boat at the cost of the line dragging.
So a better option would be a waterproof remote so that you can still steer the boat back to you. This is more difficult with the sails up if the boat is not self tacking.
If there are other crew, this safety button is more likely to succeed because it would stop the boat right away and possibly wake them but also sound an alarm, and then you would not be far from the boat after falling making the chances of retrieval easier, but I think the locator beacon that transmits gps is still needed for really bad cases.
Or you could do like me and remove all your life lines, never wear a harness and sail without any protection besides the strength of your grip, but I'm now pondering the harness option again. I had several dreams about falling overboard only to wake up on the boat in the middle of the sea.