wind vane

[Syversens]

Hi all, I'm wondering if anyone here has put a wind vane on their boat or had someone do it (not from factory). I'm doing some reasearch about it just to do some estimates. I had it on the old boat I had and loved it, that was actually the only instrument it had.I seen that Silva in Sweden has a wireless where its just mounted, battery/solar powered, if it works in Sweden it should work here... HOwever I have everything else in raymarine and it would be nice to complete the series. Anyone have any feedback ?Gaute

 

[Doug_Meyer]

Try wireless

With the technology available today, I would certainly entertain the idea of using a wireless installation. There are a couple of choices out there...That being said, I installed my own Raymarine wind system a couple of years ago. It was on a new boat, and the mast was down so it was easy to pull the wires through the conduit inside the mast. In spite of what the directions may say, there is no good way to get the wiring down the mast, through the cabin conduits, and out to the cockpit area without cutting the wire somewhere. You would need a connection break somplace anyway if you ever had to pull the mast.Plan on a day to do the job. It can be done in 3 or 4 hours if all goes smoothly

 

[Syversens]

question

Hi Doug, I only found one wireless that was designed for boats, Oregon scientific has something but it looked more like a toy than something that sits on top of a mast. You have any other websites ?I'm surprised Raymarine doesnt have more wireless, perhaps it will come... does the cable have to go all the way back to the nav station by helm or can it be "linked" up with radar or somewhere else on the boat ? I'm not sure if seatalk needs one cable to each device or if they can be in series....thanks !Gaute

 

[Doug_Meyer]

seatalk links

With the masthead wind indicator, you need a the separate cable to go from the masthead to the wind instrument. It is a multi conductor that plugs individual leads into the instrument. from there you can use seatalk cable to daisy chain to the other instrumentation on the boat. for example mine feeds data to the autopilot, the c70 screen, etc.I'm not really that familiar with what wireless applications may be out there or what function they provide. Take a look at Tack-Tik as an example, then maybe research further from there.