THIS, and your autopilot will hold a much better heading than you ever will. Also you should be able to steer to over-ride the autopilot.
No, it is not true. Both Viking and Hatteras tend to have more boats at the Fort Lauderdale show from what I've seen.
Yeah, I've seen them T'ed. Check your shaft tube, the rust stain is odd, could it be possible that the shaft tube is clogged?
Look behind/underneath the helm in that area.
They're good pumps, make great pressure and even pressure. They did have a run of them several years back where the circuit boards went bad.
I would also install a jabsco 6-7 GPM with a seperate switch or breaker as a backup since you have 2 now.
In addition to this, Azimut almost always puts a breaker panel in the closet in each stateroom for that particular stateroom.
Is the tank fiberglass? It sounds like it is and the epoxy/paint/gelcoat etc. they coated the inside with wasn't mixed properly and is...