Big bird strikes again. Windvane

Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
We were out sailing Friday and I was noticing that my Raymarine wind direction instrument was all over the place. The trusty Windex was fine.
When we got back to the slip and I could get a good angle on the masthead, I noticed my vane was missing the rear half. We had some high winds but I'm thinking a large bird tried to squat on it and snapped it off. Could it be a coincidence that we have a new pair of ospreys in the cove?
Anyway, Raymarine sells a repair kit for $32 on Amazon. It comes with the vane and cups. I wonder if the cups have new bearings too. The system is almost 30 years old now.
Now I just need to climb 50' and swap it out

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capta

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Jun 4, 2009
4,766
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
The cups are just that, sadly, no bearings.
 

BobH57

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Oct 23, 2019
91
Hunter 410 Solomons, MD
Be aware that the cups on the ST60 are different from those of the ST50 (ST60 spins faster, giving a higher wind speed indication on the ST50 control head). An osprey took out my entire ST50 speed/direction transducer and I was only able to find a replacement for the ST60, so I just figure its showing wind speed in mph instead of knots....
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,362
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Be aware that the cups on the ST60 are different from those of the ST50 (ST60 spins faster, giving a higher wind speed indication on the ST50 control head). An osprey took out my entire ST50 speed/direction transducer and I was only able to find a replacement for the ST60, so I just figure its showing wind speed in mph instead of knots....
Or now... you will actually feed in time....:biggrin:
 
Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
The Raymarine kit says it works on multiple systems:


main product photo

Raymarine E28081 Windvane/Cups
Replacement Anemometer Cups and Feather fits ST50, ST60, and ST80 masthead transducers. Includes directional feather, counterweight, speed cups, set screws, and allen key wrench.
 
Feb 10, 2004
3,917
Hunter 40.5 Warwick, RI
I may as well throw my 2 cents in. The E29081 Windvane/cups kit are exact replacements for the ST-50 wind transducer, and I believe from what I have read that the early models of the ST-60 were the same. However later models of the ST-60 had an egg-shaped body and used a different vane and cup assembly. And I just learned that the ST60 and ST60+ are able to be calibrated for wind speed. I have no clue how that is accomplished without some kind of known wind reference. My ST50 can only be calibrated for wind direction and for units of wind speed.

Regardless, I found this link which may help:

 
Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
Installed my Raymarine kit today! The entire windvane was broken off. Both anemometer and wind vane were brittle. Cleaned some dirt out around the bearing posts and reassembled with the new parts. We used my friend's Topclimber. It's pretty slick.
 
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Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
Old thread at this time. Just reflecting yesterday on the impact of cleaning up the mounts before adding the new vanes. In almost no breeze, my anemometer was spinning while others on the dock were still. Has to be working better now.
 
Sep 25, 2008
1,096
CS 30 Toronto
Mount a few stainless steel "antenna" up there. Make it difficult, if not possible, to land. That's what they do on tall buildings.