Adding fittings to the masthead - wind indicator

[Judders]

I would like a windex at the top of my mast. Nothing fancy, & no electronics. I had a look at one in the chandlers and then went out to have a look at my mast and I am totally flumoxed*.

There is a VHF aerial which since I am planning on using handheld, I guess I could remove. Beyond that I have not got a clue.

 

[barnaclephill]

my windicator came on a small arm to offset it a few inches ( from lights, antennae) and attached by way of 2 bolts. The masthead on my boat has a small horizontal steel panel to do this with vertical bits to attach shouds. Easypeasy; drilled the steel when the mast was down, but also done so since with the 240V drill and 300W inverter.
There'll be somewhere to bolt it on, surely.

 

[FullCircle]

Judders.
Two things here, and related by way of a change.
If you have a VHF already up there, then Windex do sell an indicator which goes over the VHF aerial, so no need for an extra bracket on the mast at the top.
(Alternative here is to have a bracket made and rivet it to the mast, probably best done with mast down, but possible)
I would recommend a VHF set, because they can now be had for under a hundred quid, and will transmit 1w or 25w at masthead height, giving a vastly superior range to the 1w or 5w at deck level on a handheld. Not that I am saying dont buy a handheld, just consider a cheap fixed set too.
My H/H was 79 quid, Standard Horizon, and lives out in the cockpit, so far very good after 2 years.

Now that the license is free, you will have saved 20 quid!

 

[mainmarine]

you can buy an adaptor plug from Maplins etc, to connect the masthead vhf aerial to the hand held, this will give you better range and you can fit the windex to the aerial as suggested, no drilling etc.

 

[JackFrobisher]

Has anyone lost their windex recently? I have fitted two in the last couple of years and they've both vanished. They were the type that fits over a VHF aerial. They both worked perfectly, right up to the point when they ... vanished.
/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[wizard]

I agree they seem to last approx 18 mths and then gone ..

There must be a huge pile of them somewhere ...

 

[Bodach na mara]

Yep. Lost mine in a gale in September. Went down to the boat to move it to Fairlie for winter lay-up, looked up and there it wasn't.

At first I thought the yard had not fitted it tightly enough. (Although I had fitted it, they took it off again before stepping the mast and re-fitted it from a bosun's chair.) When the mast was taken down, I saw that the thing had broken off just above the nut, through the thread of the nylon tube that the cable runs through.

That is the latest in a series of such failures to hit me. They range fom choke cable nipples, through fittings that hold a standard lamp together, to the stern tube (which broke inside the stern "deadwood" where the Cutless bearing was screwed on.) They all have one thing in common; the thread weakens the tube and creates a stress concentration. This is worse if the thread is cut off-centre or too deep or the tube bore is off centre. Mind you the problem may have been caused by OVER-tightening the nut!

 

[William_H]

Being a total cheakskate I make my own wind pointers. The mast is a piece of 1/8 diameter SS rod. The bottom is bent to a circle which is attached to the fromt of the mast about 2 inches from the top with a self tapping screw and washer . 2 self tapping screws next to one another provide suport near the top. Or a small piece of SS sheet folded over to make a clamp and one screw.

The pointer itself is made from a piece of fibreglass batten. A slot is cut vertically in one end and a suitable vane is glued in. I used a bit of carbon fibre cloth saturated with resin on a flat plastic surface. I am sure f/glass would be OK. A bit of lead is glued on the pointy end for balance.
I wrapped a piece of SS thin sheet around the batten where the hole was to be drilled so that the hole for the shaft went through the SS sheet and f/g batten and through the SS again. This is cos the f/g will wear very quickly. (I made one with brass shaft but this wore right through quite quicklly with just f/g on brass.)
To attach the pointer to the shaft I used small tubes of brass with 2 locking screws that are inside plastic in a chocolate block type wiring connector. One below the pointer and one above.

Any way this has lasted quite few seasons. it seems the birds (parrots) won,t eat anything that doesn't cost a fortune.

So if Judder's VHF antenna is a SS rod type then it should be easy to make a pointer to fit on it about 1/3 way up. olewilll

 

[Spuddy]

Re:thanks Will

Bin playing with some guitar pickups these hols. Got a big roll of music wire but needed to make loops etc ; I knew there was something I'd seen somewhere which would do it better than current clunky way and the choc blocks are just the ticket

 

[ShipsWoofy]

[ QUOTE ]
and will transmit 1w or 25w at masthead height

[/ QUOTE ]

1W you're avin a laugh aren't you, no one switches to 1W even chatting to a boat on the next pontoon. Nothing like jumping out of your skin when they call up at full power on 16.

Not sure why they even add a switch,

grrr.