About Marine Autopilot Australia

We’re Gabriel and Kristy, the couple behind Marine Autopilot Australia and YouSail.

Our dream is simple. Buy a sailing yacht, move aboard and see where the wind takes us. Australia first. Then the Pacific. Maybe much further.

We’re not there yet. We’re still learning, taking courses, spending time on boats and asking a lot of questions.

One of those questions kept coming back: how do we choose an autopilot we understand and can use confidently?

Which systems suit our boat? What is the difference between a tiller pilot, a below-deck drive and a windvane? What does installation really involve? And what do we need to learn before relying on automatic steering?

The answers were spread across manufacturer manuals, dealer websites, forums and conversations. We wanted an Australian guide that brought the options, terminology, costs and training questions together. So we built one.

That’s Marine Autopilot Australia. It’s the guide we needed ourselves, built by two sailors in the making.

We’re not going to pretend we’ve sailed with every autopilot or tested every system on this site. We haven’t. We research manufacturer documentation and published sources, organise what we find and explain the questions to take to an installer or instructor. Our comparisons are editorial research, not hands-on sea trials.

If you represent a marine brand, install autopilots, teach sailors or have a correction to share, we’d love to hear from you at gabriel@yousail.com.au.

Somewhere out there is the yacht that will become our home. Learning how to choose and use its equipment is part of getting there.

For the rest of our sailing story, and Australian sailing resources from schools and clubs to charters and brokers, head to yousail.com.au.

See you on the water.
Gabriel and Kristy