Raymarine ST60 Tridata

Jun 3, 2004
37
Beneteau 423 Chicago
I have spoken to 6 Beneteau owners in my harbor and all of them have had trouble from time to time with the Raymarine ST60 Knotmeter.

It reads 0.00 and does not change. I have verified that the paddle spins freely and is in tact.

I have spoken to Raymarine help desk and they have given me instructions to test it electronically.

(1) Is this a common problem?
(3) Is there an easy fix?
(2) How do you maintain the unit to be more reliable?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

I'm using my GPS to indicate my speed, but as you know it not much use when you are coming into the harbor
 

DougM

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Jul 24, 2005
2,242
Beneteau 323 Manistee, MI
Its a common problem.
The paddle wheel has to be pulled Out of the thru hull and the sensor above the paddle wheel has to be cleaned.
What I find in fresh water (Lake Michigan) is some minor algae and baby zebra mussels especially late in the summer. It is more of a problem if the boat sets for awhile without being used.
 

JRacer

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Aug 9, 2011
1,331
Beneteau 310 Cheney KS (Wichita)
Its a common problem.
The paddle wheel has to be pulled Out of the thru hull and the sensor above the paddle wheel has to be cleaned.
What I find in fresh water (Lake Michigan) is some minor algae and baby zebra mussels especially late in the summer. It is more of a problem if the boat sets for awhile without being used.
That's good to know, mine has been 0.00 for a season or two occasionally indicating real speed but most often 0.00. I assumed the transducer was shot. Will try the clean up before replacing. Our lake gets algae and has Zebra's.
 

hewebb

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Oct 8, 2011
329
Catalina Catalina 25 Joe Pool Lake
I had the same issue. I went on line with Raymarine and they gave me the testing procedure-all failed. I was instructed to ship the transducer to the UK for further testing, which I did. Raymarine contacted me and advised that I needed a new transducer. The call came from the eastern US where the folks in the UK shipped my transducer for testing and provided the new one at a fair price. Unit was only two years old when it failed. The unit was a gift and I did not have receipt to get covered under warranty.
 
Jul 8, 2005
512
Jeanneau 389 Grosse Pointe Farms, MI
hewebb,

I replaced my unit after about 8 years of use. Rather than find a way to string the new wire thru the hull, I just cut the wire about a foot from the transducer and spliced the wires. Has been working fine now the the past 9 years.
 
Jun 18, 2013
39
Beneteau 41.1 Glen Cove, NY
I also have the ST60 with paddlewheel speed/temp thru-hull (which are manufactured by Airmar, not Raymarine). When I was on a mooring, the paddle would get covered with algae and barnacles every 3 weeks and need to be pulled and cleaned, which I never liked doing on the mooring. Now that I'm at a slip, barnacle growth is slower but I still need to pull it once a month. Occasionally, you need to remove the paddlewheel itself from the sensor to clean the surface that the paddles spin past; there's a magnet sensor imbedded in the unit that can tell every time a paddle spins past it. That surface needs to be cleaned also. I've gotten better with practice at pulling the unit without allowing 10 gallons of seawater to flood in to the boat, but some clean up is always involved. Someone once told me the sensor should be pulled at the end of each sailing weekend, but I can't believe anyone is that diligent. Also, I once found that although I had cleaned the sensor, there was enough algae and barnacles on the hull in front of the thru-hull position that water was not flowing over the paddlewheel (it only protrudes like 1/8 of an inch) which I mistook for a dirty paddlewheel. Also, even when mine is clean it often doesn't start turning until I've hit 3 or 4 knots motoring out of the marina, then it spins like it's supposed to at all speeds.
 
Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
For daysails, I don't even put the paddle back in since the GPS/chartplotter is more accurate. For longer trips i put the paddle in so the mileage builds up on the distance log.
 
Jun 18, 2013
39
Beneteau 41.1 Glen Cove, NY
For daysails, I don't even put the paddle back in since the GPS/chartplotter is more accurate. For longer trips i put the paddle in so the mileage builds up on the distance log.
Ron, you are indeed a diligent sailor! :thumbup:
 
Jun 3, 2004
37
Beneteau 423 Chicago
Thanks to all for your feedback.

What's interesting is that I had a Signet Knot meter on my 1981 Catalina 30 (that I owned for 31 years) and never had a problem with it working.

So much for Raymarine
 

jpeac2

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Feb 9, 2007
25
Beneteau Oceanis 351 Belmont Harbor
Dave -

Same problem over here. 1997 Oceanis 351. Might try pulling it and cleaning the whole unit. Every now and then it will come on for a bit but it doesn’t work the majority of the time and has been that way for a while now. Have checked the visual wire connections and don’t see anything wrong.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

J.R.
 
Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
Used to scare us to death!

As new sailers/boat owners, the thought of pulling the transducer out of the bottom of a perfectly good boat sounded a lot like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane! Probably exacerbated by a piece that I read by a popular columnist just as we were beginning to sail. It never occurred to me at the time that there might have been more sarcasm in his column than water coming in to the boat, so we spent several years living with intermittently functioning knot meters.

The summer that we attended our first Beneteau Rendezvous, after several dockside beverages, my wife mentioned our frustration with the situation and asked one of our new friends how they managed the courage to regularly perform the task. He insisted that we follow him onto his boat where he gave us a full demonstration complete with waving arms and feigned distress ("We're sinking! We're sinking!") as his wife (shaking here head at the theatrics) continued to prepare an appetizer in the galley.

Earlier this week we pulled the transducer in the B&G system on our new boat for the first time to remove a couple of small obstructions. The boat's only a little over a year old, and we have the bottom cleaned on a fairly regular basis. In fact, it was just cleaned a little less than a month ago. Perhaps something near the paddlewheel got pushed into it during the cleaning, who knows? But we didn't even get 10 ounces of water inside, let alone 10 gallons. Clean up took a single sponge and a single paper towel.

I did a quick Google of "Airmar blanking plug" and found this on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z9QYS_95VJQ
 
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Oct 5, 2013
66
Beneteau 343 Portland
Is the failure typically all or nothing or would it show slower than expected speed? I have the same device on my 343.