Recent posts

#71

Bavaria Yacht Help! / Re: RayMarine SmartPilot X10 r...

Last post by UP - November 16 2025, 16:06

Elias,

Thank you for the input. The fluxgate compass is indeed a necessary device for the autopilot, but in this case is likely not the cause of error. Compass failure should display "no compass" or "no heading". My issue is with the rategyro, which is a gyroscope that measures angular rate of change of the boat. Compass measures magnetic heading. I have installed the compass rather far from any electric device, should not be an issue.

#72

Bavaria Yacht Help! / Re: RayMarine SmartPilot X10 r...

Last post by elias - November 16 2025, 13:48

Hi ! Passed something similar , check where is the fluxgate located , move it away from any cabling or motor . Mine was loosing heading , tried everything . Apparently was the new tap water pressure pump , (located on the other side of the bulkhead where the flu gate was located ). I changed it for a bigger , and every time it was working would mess the autopilot . Changed then the position of fluxgate and all back to normal .

[Does anyone have access to the service manual of the SPX-10?]

#73

Bavaria Yacht Help! / RayMarine SmartPilot X10 rateg...

Last post by UP - November 16 2025, 11:41

Hi,

I'm working through debugging an issue with my sailboat, the Bavaria Cruiser 47, 2001. This season the autopilot developed a new issue - RayMarine SmartPilot X10 main unit and Raytheon ST6000+ control unit - started giving rategyro failure at the control unit, dropping tracking/heading. Restarting it helped at times at the beginning of the season, but it became a constant and immediate failure at the end of the season. I changed my onboard batteries to LiFePo4 at the start of the season, but this should not have an effect, as per installation manual, the main unit's operational voltage is 10V-34V input and other SeaTalk/NMEA2000 instruments were working fine.

So, having a background in electronics, I'm working on debugging the circuit board. Does anyone have access to the service manual of the SPX-10? I have the service manual of SPX-5, but it is slightly different. The manual on the internet (https://www.manualslib.com/) seems BS (see image), as the voltage table just does not make sense as listed (no engineer on earth would name a testpoint node 5V and have the voltage behind this measure 3.2V-3.4V). Please see attached image of my PCB's test points below and list together with my readings (powered with 12VDC precision bench PSU, TP relative to 0V/GND of input, no peripheral devices connected):

• 0V-PLANE1: 0V
• 0V-PLANE2: 0V
• 5V1: 5.07V
• 5V-SWITCH: 4.99 V
• 5V2: 4.95V
• 3V3-STLK2: 4.99V
• 3V3: 3.31V
• 3V3-IPS: 0V
• VGATE: 11.59V
• VSUPPLY: 11.95V
• V2-CLUTCH: 11.94V

.

3V3-STLK2 at ~0V seems off, as does the 3V3-IPS at ~5V. Might just be that no peripherals are connected? Any ideas are welcome. I'll ask for a service manual directly from RayMarine too. The SPX-5 service manual is of some help, as I think they share a big part of the design.

EDIT: I've added an microscope image of the gyroscope IC itself. It is an obsolete Kionix KGY12 analogue gyroscope. Unfortunately I cannot find a datasheet for this IC. Does anyone by chance know the pinout or a drop-in replacement?

#74

Bavaria Yacht Help! / Re: Saildrive seal replacement...

Last post by mibbal - November 15 2025, 08:51

Maybe someone else can share experience of moving the engine? I'm in doubt on how to fix upper side of the halyard... Any suggestions are much appreciated

#75

Modifications & Equipment / Re: Second Replacement of Deck...

Last post by jeffatoms2 - November 15 2025, 03:55

Hey Doug,

We have the same prolem wuth 100% of our portlights and windows (1998 38 Ocean).  If you are a DIY person and happen to have an iPhone Pro version 15 or later, I've had good success using a 3D scanner app and the LIDAR feature from the phone to get your scan.  Your could have it cut in 2D acrylic and then heat form it to the 3D curve.   Keep the original window to use as your mold template!

If you get the LIDAR capture, I'd be happy to "flatten" the file and cut it in 1/8 material (scrap, foam, plywood, cardboard) to prototype it for you.  The catch is i can only go up to 10 feet six inches and a rigid panel might be expensive to ship to get your test fit.  Other material can be rolled and shipped in a concrete Sano tube.

#76

Modifications & Equipment / replacement Whitlock dash pane...

Last post by jeffatoms2 - November 12 2025, 23:56

Things have been a bit slow lately at work so we have branched out and we have been making items for our 1998 Bavaria 38 Ocean, Zephyrus, our remarkable boat.  At the shop we have a 11 foot by 6 foot CAD/CAM waterjet cutting table, laser engravers and other fun, capable and cool tools so I set out to make parts for our boat that aren't readily available.

Our first project was to get rid of original 27 year old the Autohelm dash/helm navigational instruments and the original Garmin GPS and replace them with newer, slightly used and slightly almost free Raymarine gear, including a mini chartplotter/depth contour readout, onto the same dash footprint.  Most of the original stuff had dull screens or was becoming unreliable.

Due to the sizes and cutouts for the new gear, the original fiberglass panel could not be modified and recut to fit the new instruments, however all of the original wiring could be re-used.

We've done the same project on other boats and we have the process pretty well figured out.  Basically we took off and disconnected the old dash, marked the wires, taking lots of photos, traced out the panel with a Sharpie pen onto a oversized piece of butcher's paper, scanned it into the computer, digitized it, created a cut path file on the computer from the digital scan, verified measurements and cut it out onto a new piece of 1/4 plywood. This created our prototype dash "plug" #1.

From there, we verified the fit including alignment of the original screw mounting holes to the Whitlock pedistal.  If adjustments were needed, the digital file would have been modified and the process repeated.  From there, we test fit the new gear by placing the plastic sun covers in their desired locations, moving them around on the plug until they looked good.  We then obtained the PDFs cutout files from Raymarine's internet site for the wind, depth, speed, autopilot and chartplotter.  We overlayed the imported PDFs onto the original digital template we created earlier and cut a second prototype from UHMW.  FYI, the Raymarine PDFs had both the outlines of the sun covers and the cutouts, making placement easy (so does Garmin-FYI).

We then mounted the new gauges to the UHMW and connected the new dash up to the original wiring.  The only new wire we had to run was for the new CHIRP depth transducer which we mounted inside the hull just aft of the keel but before the rudder in the bilge.  Note the new chartplotter has an internal GPS that required no new wiring.

My goal was to get all of the "new" instruments into the same space as the originals.  The truth is it's pretty tight as you can see from the photos but it worked quite well and all in, I think we spent less than $250US (our net cost) to run through it twice.  I'll be fine tuning it onto #3 sometime this winter as it was too close to the compass but the proof of concept worked quite well, according to plan.  Typically three iterations are necessary on this type of project just right, hence the use of cheap materials thus far.

Note that we now have redudancy galore.  In addition to two radar equipped Raymarine E80s aboard, each with their own GPSs, we now have bow and stern depth, one set to water depth below with the keel (bow) and waterline depth at the stern.  Though we actually purchased a new masthead wind instrument, it turned out that the old dash instrument was faulty, not the masthead, so we have a spare.  Additionally, we like and know the Raymarine ST5000+ autopilot but still replaced it with the same and we will soon have a spare there when I replace its LCD ($100 in parts).  The final bonus is once I add AIS signals to the helm, we will only have to swing out the big companionway chartplotter when we use radar, freeing up access to get below decks.

Photos to follow.

#77

Bavaria Yacht Help! / Re: Saildrive gear ratio Visio...

Last post by symphony2 - November 12 2025, 17:41

That is correct

#78

Bavaria Yacht Help! / Saildrive gear ratio Vision 42...

Last post by Ronaldrf - November 12 2025, 15:07

Hi i am looking for the saildrive 130s ratio
I own a vision 42 with the 40 hp volvo, i think it is 2.19 to 1 but not sure.
Not close to the boat now , therefore my request of any Owner with a vision would be able to help at short notice.  Its required to order a new prop.

Thanks Ronald

#79

Modifications & Equipment / Re: dedicated fresh water toil...

Last post by jeffatoms2 - November 11 2025, 16:05

HappySailor, im energized to check out lining the bottom of the rear lazarette as you suggested.  That is alternative #5.  The 38 Ocean has adequate water tankage.  My goal is to have a dedicated 7 gallon head system and clear out the seven gallon jugs from the shower stall.   When the tank empties, the flush line dries up and its time to pump out.

Toilet smells are the honest, unspoken bane of small sailboats.  We cannot tolerate them and don't really have an issue.  That said, the waste lines are 25+ years old and will soon stink so we have that on the horizon.  The golden rule for us is dont test the limit of the system.

Why this matters?  We live on the Puget Sound and Salish Sea.  The two of us have called the shores home for a combined 120 years!  The problem we are faced with is the most beautiful cruising grounds we love are basically 100's of rock islands without much fresh ground water and even less to share.  We love to cruise here and a self-sufficient yacht, albeit 38 feet, is our goal.

Thanks for the great ideas!

#80

Modifications & Equipment / Re: dedicated fresh water toil...

Last post by Happysailor - November 11 2025, 07:11

Completely another solution would be to properly re-route the breather overboard. Making a hole in the hull is less painfull to my opinion. If you want to have a freshwater flush, expand the usual freshwater capacity by having 2 tanks, the usual one PS aft and 1 additional one under the fwd bunk. Combined with watermaking capacity your can also have a solution which works?