The cost of perfection...

This might be just the thing, needful reading, and, obviously, we don't live in a sane world...

I can't help but be amazed at the polarization of a lot of boat folk's thinking where buying gear is concerned otherwise known as the perfection trap.

Take self-steering gears for instance...

Last time I paid attention, the Cape Horn was the current favorite self-steering gear for folks who make lists with "BEST" in the title and it's a good gear though I would not use the word "best" (remember I don't really believe in the concept of "BEST" marine gear) to describe it. That said, it is an excellent gear but, then again, so are most gears being built these days. Offhand, I'd connect its current popularity status as it's a chunk cheaper than the last "best" (the Monitor) than actually being a better gear.

Where it gets polarized is that folks who want a gear and feel they need the "best" (doesn't that word start getting annoying?) don't quite have the budget to buy the current flavor of the month so decide it's going to be the "best" or nothing at all. Made worse, of course, by then depending on some cheap cockpit mounted electronic autopilot that would never make anyone's BEST list...

Think about that bit of insanity for a moment...

Now, why not add to the equation the thought of hand steering for 48 hours or more straight...

Lucky for you that there are any number of self-steering gears available pretty much all the time for a lot less... I'm pretty sure the current street price for a reasonable Aries (long considered the best for ages) is between $400 and $500 and, while you may need to sort out the bearings, it will take you where you want to go as well as the Monitor or Cape Horn because they are essentially the same design.

Of course, there are many other gears (Auto-Helm, RVG, Navik, Atoms, etc) that work great languishing in consignment shops, yard sales and in the classifieds ready to become yours for a lot less than $500.

Listening to Marah

So it goes...