For the last few months my wind indicator has been under reporting velocity. We could have white caps all over the water and a big number 8 showing up on the wind gauge. The anemometer turned at the top if the mast. The display unit showed numbers that changed. They were just too small. This weekend I decided enough was enough. I removed access panels, pulled wires out gently, cut wire ties to unscramble an inherited mess. I started checking for loose or corroded connections. I check the voltage on the power supply. I electrically isolated the wind gauge from the sea talk bus to see if there was a faulty cable. Nothing. Finally I did a rash thing. I read the manual. I was actually looking for some hints on wiring, but finally made my way back to a section called "calibration." Back in the back it describes how you can scroll through the calibration section and come to something called "U1" or "U2". If your gauge is set to "U1", it displays wind speed in knots per hour. The U2 setting displays meters per second. However there is no indication of the unit of measure on the primary display screen. I groaned. Sure enough my wind gauge had somehow been set to "U2" and was displaying meters per second. Just so you know, 15 knots of wind speed equates to about 7.7 meters per second. Twenty knots to a little over 10 meters per second. One push of the button and the problem was solved (except for the cleanup). All was not lost. I learned where all my cables were run and how the seatalk bus fit together etc. RTFM! Gary Wyngarden S/V Wandrlust H37.5
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Gary, you crack me up
I love your honesty but also admire your ability to pursue a challange. I am glad that your % rate is high on finding and correcting these things. r.w.landau
I love your honesty but also admire your ability to pursue a challange. I am glad that your % rate is high on finding and correcting these things. r.w.landau
A Gary *5
That was a good catch! It is bugs like that that make people crazy, including tech guys. PS: after two masthead flys and one wind trasnsducer demolished by birds, I had spikes installed. Works great even if the top of the mast looks like it needs a haircut. Rick D.
That was a good catch! It is bugs like that that make people crazy, including tech guys. PS: after two masthead flys and one wind trasnsducer demolished by birds, I had spikes installed. Works great even if the top of the mast looks like it needs a haircut. Rick D.
Smart and Smarter
It takes a smart person to tackle the electronics for the windspeed instrument and someone who can solve a problem is even smarter. By the way, what ever hapened to the prop shaft vibration problem? Was it the key?
It takes a smart person to tackle the electronics for the windspeed instrument and someone who can solve a problem is even smarter. By the way, what ever hapened to the prop shaft vibration problem? Was it the key?
Similar experience.
I had to laugh at that Gary. I would come back from a rough day on Lake Erie and get online to a NOAA buoy site. There are two places that I could check the day's wind and wave conditions. The one I used always threw me, "whadda' you mean only 6 knots, we were sailing over 7"! Small print? Right, meters per second. So a few years ago I learned to convert in my head. Now I use a site that displays in knots. I still don't believe the wave numbers. You should see a 3-foot wave on Lake Erie!
I had to laugh at that Gary. I would come back from a rough day on Lake Erie and get online to a NOAA buoy site. There are two places that I could check the day's wind and wave conditions. The one I used always threw me, "whadda' you mean only 6 knots, we were sailing over 7"! Small print? Right, meters per second. So a few years ago I learned to convert in my head. Now I use a site that displays in knots. I still don't believe the wave numbers. You should see a 3-foot wave on Lake Erie!
Wave height.....
Ed- I define wave height as the depth of blue water coming over the bow. Do you measure differently?
Ed- I define wave height as the depth of blue water coming over the bow. Do you measure differently?
Bad Vibrations--The Continuing Saga
John, Just to refresh your memory, when I boat my boat in February 2004, the surveyor, engine mechanic and I all agreed there was excessive vibration in the prop and shaft. The dealer I bought the boat from in Vancouver pulled the max prop and returned it to PYI for balancing, aligned the shaft and remounted the old fixed pitch prop. Vibration problem disapppeared. PYI returned the balanced max prop to me, but I didn't want to pay for a haulout just for that so I waited until February of this year to remount it when I was having some other work done. The vibration problem returned. I called PYI. They said the yard probably screwed up the mounting. I took it back to the yard (Canoe Cove). We all checked out the mounting, made a couple of adjustments, and splashed the boat for a sea trial. Vibration still there. So we hauled the boat again and replaced the fixed prop. I went home with no vibration and Canoe Cove returned the prop once again to PYI. According to Canoe Cove, PYI says the prop was out of balance and they fixed it. It's now back at Canoe Cove, and I'm taking Wanderlust over there yet again to try out the max prop on Wednesday. I haven't paid for any of this yet, and I'm getting pretty frustrated with the whole thing. Watch for the next installment on Thursday! Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust H37.5
John, Just to refresh your memory, when I boat my boat in February 2004, the surveyor, engine mechanic and I all agreed there was excessive vibration in the prop and shaft. The dealer I bought the boat from in Vancouver pulled the max prop and returned it to PYI for balancing, aligned the shaft and remounted the old fixed pitch prop. Vibration problem disapppeared. PYI returned the balanced max prop to me, but I didn't want to pay for a haulout just for that so I waited until February of this year to remount it when I was having some other work done. The vibration problem returned. I called PYI. They said the yard probably screwed up the mounting. I took it back to the yard (Canoe Cove). We all checked out the mounting, made a couple of adjustments, and splashed the boat for a sea trial. Vibration still there. So we hauled the boat again and replaced the fixed prop. I went home with no vibration and Canoe Cove returned the prop once again to PYI. According to Canoe Cove, PYI says the prop was out of balance and they fixed it. It's now back at Canoe Cove, and I'm taking Wanderlust over there yet again to try out the max prop on Wednesday. I haven't paid for any of this yet, and I'm getting pretty frustrated with the whole thing. Watch for the next installment on Thursday! Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust H37.5
Thanks for the prop update
I was wondering what hapened because the board was so quiet. I'm a little surprised that they found the prop to be off-balance after it was sent in to ensure that it was balanced. However, for info, to my knowledge PYI doesn't do any prop-work in-house. They send their work to The Prop Shop (http://www.propshopltd.com/) which does a lot of prop work so who knows, maybe there was some communication that was lost or who knows? I would think that PYI would have some way of doing a quality assurance check but perhaps they "trust" the Prop Shop to do their work right or maybe the QA is too time consuming and expensive. From the out-of-balance description my guess would have been the key was the problem. If the key is too thick it will cause the prop to not seat properly and throw the center of gravity off thereby causing the "out of balance" problem. Even though they found the prop to be out-of-balance (that might have been only part of the problem) there could still be an issue with the key not causing the prop to seat properly. If you can, I would try to be there when it's put back together to ensure the key clearance/thickness is okay. Test run before splashing? If the job is done in the travel lift sling I wonder if it could be test-run before being splashed? Ask PYI if this can be done. Maybe grease up the cutlass and the shaft seal (ask PYI if this is a good idea) and feed the engine raw water intake with a hose? You certainly don't need any more haulout expenses. Good luck geting it back together properly.
I was wondering what hapened because the board was so quiet. I'm a little surprised that they found the prop to be off-balance after it was sent in to ensure that it was balanced. However, for info, to my knowledge PYI doesn't do any prop-work in-house. They send their work to The Prop Shop (http://www.propshopltd.com/) which does a lot of prop work so who knows, maybe there was some communication that was lost or who knows? I would think that PYI would have some way of doing a quality assurance check but perhaps they "trust" the Prop Shop to do their work right or maybe the QA is too time consuming and expensive. From the out-of-balance description my guess would have been the key was the problem. If the key is too thick it will cause the prop to not seat properly and throw the center of gravity off thereby causing the "out of balance" problem. Even though they found the prop to be out-of-balance (that might have been only part of the problem) there could still be an issue with the key not causing the prop to seat properly. If you can, I would try to be there when it's put back together to ensure the key clearance/thickness is okay. Test run before splashing? If the job is done in the travel lift sling I wonder if it could be test-run before being splashed? Ask PYI if this can be done. Maybe grease up the cutlass and the shaft seal (ask PYI if this is a good idea) and feed the engine raw water intake with a hose? You certainly don't need any more haulout expenses. Good luck geting it back together properly.
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