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hi youtubers jeff cote here  we've got another installment of ask pys  all right we've got a question here from  a fellow boarder  and she asks can you explain the  benefits of putting an autopilot on my  boat  i have a 45 cruiser so what's the  purpose of an autopilot  an autopilot is a device right and it's  got multiple parts  but it's basically a device that can do  multiple things  one is it can hold a course so if you  are basically having your boat in one  direction and you want your boat to keep  going in that direction  you could simply engage your autopilot  and have that boat  stay on that heading and it will stay on  that heading until you disengage it or  it doesn't have propulsion anymore  and it'll just stay in that direction so  that's basically  using your autopilot just for going to a  heading  the next purpose of an autopilot is  saying hey jeff you know  i'd like to be able to go to that  waypoint a waypoint is  a coordinate right from gps and you're  saying i'd like to go  there so now you can assuming that your  chart plotter is connected to your  autopilot you can say  create a waypoint go to waypoint and  then on your autopilot you say hey by  the way i'm not going to ask you to go  to a heading  i'm going to ask you to track and then  you enable track and then the autopilot  is going to prompt you and say are you  sure you want to go to this waypoint  and then you acknowledge and then the  autopilot is going to bring you to that  waypoint  so that's the second purpose of an  autopilot it's a way for you to go to  waypoints  the third way of using an autopilot is  saying hey  i'm actually would like to follow a  sequence of waypoints  a sequence of waypoints is really a  route that's what it is it's  how do you get from a to b and you have  to go to multiple points and again you  can  create a route on your chart plotter and  then you can say i want to follow this  route  and assuming that your chartplotter is  connected to your autopilot your  autopilot now is going to actually  follow that route it gets even better  some modern chart plotters like for  example garmin  are going to have this auto route  feature so you don't even have to create  a sequence of waypoints anymore for a  route it will actually  create a route for you and if you have a  garmin  char plotter and a garmin autopilot it  will actually  have the boat follow that route that was  automatically generated by the char  plotter  so those are all good reasons to have an  autopilot now here's a  even better reason to have an autopilot  most of us are not  sailing with full crew meaning sometimes  we're all by ourselves  we might have someone else on board  maybe  a few other people on board but it does  happen sometimes where you have to have  someone on the helm and things get  really crazy they get chaotic you don't  know somebody got injured you need to  hold on a course  and it's happened to some of my voters  you know there's a couple on board  one of them for example hurt his finger  trying to  work on the engine and actually really  cut his finger really bad  and they had a long passage ahead of  them they were far away they had to  motor for 10 hours to get back to  civilization where they could bring the  husband to the hospital  and so what was incredible about the  autopilot is the autopilot was basically  a second set of hands holding a course  and so  as the partner the wife was doing  everything on the boat and the husband  was  tending to his wound it was less  stressful than having  one person being holding the helm all  the time  so an autopilot is one of these things  that until you taste it  try it you don't think you need but the  moment you have it you realize how  useful it is to have an autopilot be  there  and be a second set of hands to hold  your boat  course or heading steady as you go to a  destination  so those would be the reasons why i  would get an autopilot for my boat  thank you for watching this pys video if  you've got further questions  ask them down below or go on our website  to fill one of the forms  don't forget to subscribe and thanks for  watching