old SR Mariner knotmeter: refurbish or replace?

[JonnyQuest]

I'm looking for recommendations for where to best spend money on my knotmeter, as I have no idea about the new instruments and gauges available. My ODay is an older boat and I primarily due daycruising, so don't rely much on instruments--they haven't worked since I purchased the boat. But I am now interested in either getting the old SR Mariner knotmeter working or replacing with another product.

I'd like to get some feedback from others who have gone this route and which direction I should go. I want a basic knotmeter and do not as of now expect to integrate any of these meters to a package system. I don’t have a price from Mariner on refurbing current equipment, but it would also involve dealing with the throughhull as well. I see that the current throughhull is the plastic fitting attached to a thin plywood backing plate, and it looks like the sealant between the hull and plywood is finally failing-plywood is damp from Water seepage.

I assume when rebedding a plastic throughhull for a knotmeter that is really old is not a good plan, and at minimum I should purchase a new throughhull for the current gauge if I go that route. Ditto for the paddlewheel—looks like it is old as Methuselah and due for a replacement. And the cockpit gauge needle sits at ½ knot instead of at zero (adjusting the calibration screw has no effect).

While I in theory could get the gauge refurbished and purchase replacement paddlewheel and throughhull, wouldn’t this cost be approaching what a new knotmeter and sending unit would be anyway?

Thanks as usual for sharing experiences and ideas on where to invest this outlay.

FYI, boat currently has SR Mariner self-powered knotmeter, wind gauge and apparent wind gaue. None are working right now. And unit at top of mast has one of the three wind cups missing.

Jonny

 

[JonnyQuest]

Got in touch with SR Mariner and they still service these older units and have replacement parts available. Servicing and replacement parts appear fairly reasonable, so I'm going to go that route.

If anyone has old Mariner instruments and are wondering, as of this posting the company is still servicing and supporting these old discontinued instruments.

 

[25yearslater]

Hi Jonny. If you have an old laptop or possibly an i phone type of contraption consider a chartplotter/gps using one of the free software downloads. The charts are free from NOAA and a GPS receiver is about 35 bucks from Amazon.com. This gives you charts as well as position and real time speed. I have been using this setup on YOT with amazing results. A used laptop can be purchased for next to nothing at most computer stores and with older software that will work for OpenCPN.

 

[JonnyQuest]

Yes Joe, I hear you about the usefulness and cost benefit of using GPS at Laptop combo. I have use my laptop with the GPS hockey puck and I do use my phone Regularly. However I want to get the knotmeter working for the speed over water as opposed to Speed over ground. As an indicator of proper sail trim. I'll still use the laptop and iphone for nav purposes like you.

 

[JonnyQuest]

I also want to be able to read speed through water before and after having my hull and prop cleaned. See what a difference that makes.

Tackling a couple of things at one time.
Things that I have let go too long too. ;-)

 

[ddooher]

I have a 1983 Oday 25. The knot meter works intermittently. I spoke with SR Mariner as well and am thinking of going the refurbish route for the knot meter. I will get a new impeller and pin for the transmitter. The guy was pretty helpful, no pressure. FOr the meter, I just realized, my needle is at 1/2 knot, not 0, similar to yours. I was curious, do you know if the refurbish included fixing the needle, spring.

Thanks.

Dan

 

[JonnyQuest]

I have a 1983 Oday 25. The knot meter works intermittently. I spoke with SR Mariner as well and am thinking of going the refurbish route for the knot meter. I will get a new impeller and pin for the transmitter. The guy was pretty helpful, no pressure. FOr the meter, I just realized, my needle is at 1/2 knot, not 0, similar to yours. I was curious, do you know if the refurbish included fixing the needle, spring.

Thanks.

Dan

Hi Dan,
Sorry, I haven't had mind refurbished yet. However the service folks at Mariner urged me/you to test the gauge first to rule out sender or wiring issues versus gauge issues--with a multimeter. I expect it's the gauge but will test before sending It in for servicing. If you beat me to it, update here how it went for you.
JQ

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Cory is the man to talk to at SR Instruments. They do not manufacture the product anymore, but they do still fix them as parts permit (as already stated above). They do a good job, but also consider that their technology is old school and electronics have improved greatly in the past several years. So, if you want modern electronics, consider replacing. But, that is also a money issue. If you replace your instruments with another brand, you have to deal with new transducer holes and plugging up the others if they are too far off, and the same might go with the instrument heads and how the new ones might match up. All doable, but how much do you want to spend to make it right?

 

[JonnyQuest]

Cost is a big consideration. And when I spoke with Cory he explained that the refurbishing fees are really minimal maybe $40 something like that.
On a small boat like mine I don't have a need for instrument integration and all the costs associated with that.

 

[Apex]

$40 can balloon to $200 once troubleshooting takes place. I recently repaired a depthsounder. The $45 estimate for a new button changed to $200 for a transistor instead. YMMV

 

[JonnyQuest]

$40 can balloon to $200 once troubleshooting takes place. I recently repaired a depthsounder. The $45 estimate for a new button changed to $200 for a transistor instead. YMMV

Apex, you're right. In this case the service folks said the $40 servicing pretty much takes care of most issues from age. No guarantees but for the sr mariner gauges it may turn out ok.

Or not.

 

[FourPoints]

FWIW, my SR mariner paddle wheel and log is still quite accurate, I am considering replacing it, but only because I want something that supports NMEA 0183,