Wee bits

[Joe Blizzard]

I have this little windex that was made to strap onto a mast with a plastic bracket and bungee arrangement, which you can see on the right in the first picture. To make it a little more permanent, I cut a piece of aluminum to fit in the hollow spot at the back of my masthead and threaded it for a set screw to hold the shaft in place. A machine screw replaced a rivet through the backstay tang to hold it all together. It's the little things.

 

[kappykaplan]

Nice solution!

 

[PaulK]

Looks like it works better for you on port tack. Harder to see on starboard. Will airflow over the sails affect it? Ours sticks out forward and up to avoid this problem.

 

[thinwater]

Davis Instruments Black Max.

The are designed to strap down low on the mast of una-rig dinghies and extend forward. I like them on pulpit rails, one on each side. Again, I used a modified mount.

 

[Joe Blizzard]

Looks like it works better for you on port tack. Harder to see on starboard. Will airflow over the sails affect it? Ours sticks out forward and up to avoid this problem.

The way the original mount fit on my mast I usually had it positioned on a diagonal to port, so I'm accustomed to looking over that way for it, and sailing within the confines of the Kanawha River with its fickle winds I find that it's seldom occluded for long. If the airflow over the sails has any effect on its accuracy, I'm not a good enough sailor to notice.

 

[thinwater]

Wind instruments are always affected by the sails. In front of the sail they are influenced by upwash. At the top they get wind flowing upwards, off the top of the sail DDW. They are just a relative measure. In ths case , it will read a little different on each tack.

I mentioned I run a second set down low. I find them handy, saving a lot of looking up. But if you go fowrad and check them both when sailing (you have to go to the pulpit to see them both at the same time) it's obvious they point about 5 degrees different, with the leeward vane pointing farther to windward.

 

[Joe]

I have this apparent wind indicator that mounts on the bridle of my Nacra 5.2. The black bracket at the top attaches to the tack fitting. The spring like clamp holds the vane's shaft so it can be easily adjusted or removed. It is actually under the bridle, below the jib, between and a bit above the hulls, for minimal interference and optimal visibility.

It's primary purpose is to assist the driver's upwind steering when the sails are sheeted in tight.... a setting quite common on beach cats... even downwind! Once the sheets are eased the driver normally steers to a course, rather than a fixed apparent wind angle, and will do a lot of trimming using the tell tales to get the best awa. Rather than the common top of the mast location, the bridle position saves the driver from craning his neck unnaturally and keep his eyes on the road.