Installing Raymarine Windvane

[kiteflyer]

I've been upgrading all my electronics on my 1991 Hunter 28 on Lake Winnebago. New Raymarine EV100 autohelm, i70s instrument, ITC5 transducer converter. Everything went very smoothly.

So every year, our marina rents a cherry picker for us to share the cost and check out our mast equipment. I'm thinking of installing a wind vane as long as I have to go up to replace anchor light bulb.

So what's involved in wiring up a wind transducer and running it down the mast? Is there a tube the new cable runs in like the power for the light? Never been up there before and I'd appreciate any advice before I do.

 

[GorillaToast]

I just installed one over the winter and it was pretty easy. Don't know about your 28, but my Cherubini 27 only has one tube for wires. Both a triplex 14awg and the cable for the wind vane fit along with 2 coax cables. Don't know about the connector on the Raymarine, but the size of my B & G allowed me to drill only a 5/16" hole in the mast head for cable exit.

I would suggest if you are re-wiring the whole shebang that you pull the wind vane cable first because of the integral connector.

 

[Whatfiero1]

Or use one of the wireless type

 

[Hafa]

I'd also recommend replacing your anchor light with an LED; you'll likely never need to tend to it again.

 

[sailermaned]

When I Installed My Raymarine Wind Device I cut Line In Half And Fed It Down Mast Snaked Line Up Thru Deck And Installed A Weather Proof Connector In Base Of Mast So It Can Be Easily Be Disconnected. Was Also Easier To Snake Thru Rest Of Boat Good Luck Eddie

 

[LeslieTroyer]

If your lucky you'll have a pull string top and bottom, when I put my Raymarine wind instrument on the pull was only at the bottom

I used Harbor Freight fiberglass pull rods it took two sets for me but it worked great. I pulled some ancor 14-5 mast wire at the same time.

Les

 

[kiteflyer]

Haven't looked yet, but where do the wires come out at the bottom? In the floor ahead of the bilge or in the ceiling of the cabin maybe?

 

[jssailem]

Raymarine wind instrument

The instrument is called a wind transducer.

 

[GorillaToast]

Haven't looked yet, but where do the wires come out at the bottom? In the floor ahead of the bilge or in the ceiling of the cabin maybe?

On my 27 there is a hole halfway inside the front of the compression post (well, now completely inside my new post) that drains to the forward bilge. The mast's electrical wires run thru the raised stringer cover that defines the forward edge of that bilge, then up thru the post to the mast step by way of a 1" pic pipe that's stuck into that hole. I just tapped into the existing wires and chose no to feed the wind sensor or antenna wires along that route as they run in between the port side hull and liner back to the DC panel and splicing a n2k cable just felt like a weak link. I left enough wire to reach from the base of the mast when horizontal to the deck clam at the mast step. When I raise the mast I'll just stuff the excess inside.

The short answer is my DC wires go thru the post and all the others exit thru the head ceiling.

 

[LeslieTroyer]

If you are putting Raymarine "Transducers" up there it is not N2K - just pulses and resistance, They can be spliced - my Raymarine wind transducer came with a waterproof box with a terminal block inside for splicing. You get SeaTalkNG/N2k out of the ITC5

 

[GorillaToast]

If you are putting Raymarine "Transducers" up there it is not N2K - just pulses and resistance, They can be spliced - my Raymarine wind transducer came with a waterproof box with a terminal block inside for splicing. You get SeaTalkNG/N2k out of the ITC5

Mine's a B & G. I tried to splice a N2K field connector onto some cable for my vhf, but the instructions that came with connector differed from those in the radio manual which differed from anything I could find online, I just gave up. (Rant deleted)