Tintin
Well-Known Member
I am very happy with all my nasa kit. No problems with wind cups after 4 years nor accuracy.
are you happy with your NASA wind instruments?
- Thread starter Burnham Bob
- Start date
maby
Well-Known Member
My only experience of Nasa gear was our first boat. That was a decrepit 19 footer that had not been used in about four years and looked like it had not received any maintenance in many more than that. It had been abandoned in the boatyard for the last several years, but the Nasa wind and depth still worked fine after we launched it.
flaming
Well-Known Member
Thread drift - but no, that's not it. It's all for targets.
For example, in 15 knots I know that I should be doing 6.5 knots upwind. If I'm not, then I have to sort it out, if I am then all is good and I can concentrate on other things.
It's even more use downwind, where the polars might say that I need to do 160 degrees true at 8 knots for a given windspeed for best VMG. So if I know the windspeed I know whether I am too high, or too low, to get the best VMG.
It also gets you repeatable settings - for example if we go out in 15 knots and play around with the settings (jib car, halyard tension etc) and get to a point that we're happy with, then the next time we go out in 15 knots we can go straight back to those settings as a start point for the day. Saves bags of time and makes sure you're fast straight out of the blocks.
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
So telling me i am talking bolleux is not criticising me thenDaydream Believer,
A, no beard,
B, I have not critisized anyone merely put my point of view and related lessons learned.
C, If you have wool telltales on your Phantom you shouldn't make silly comments about ' bits of string not working very well ', should you ?!
Comment about woolies on the phantom are my opinion
But you criticise that comment too
I was prepared to accept you on face value but it seems others on this forum may be right
Never mind to each his own & yes you are entitled to an opinion whether it is in line with others or not
Still like to meet you in the bar though - assuming they will let you in!!!
Seajet
...
Daydream,
you may or may not like to remember I was responding to your initial comment...
As for meeting you in a pub - bar in your parlance - if it's the sort of place where everyone has highlights in their hair and are called ' Jamie ' I'll happilly be excluded, otherwise you're welcome for a chat !
AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
I expect when they're out racing in their 22' boat and it's gusting force 11 they say 'Do you think it's time to put a reef in lads? Our windy is indicating 62 knots.'
By the way, Raytheon have not made marine instruments for over a decade. Do catch up at the back.
Seajet
...
I expect when they're out racing in their 22' boat and it's gusting force 11 they say 'Do you think it's time to put a reef in lads? Our windy is indicating 62 knots.'
By the way, Raytheon have not made marine instruments for over a decade. Do catch up at the back.
Angus,
I don't give a toss when they were made, it's simply that poor saps keep quoting their experiences / costs with them !
Andy
Bobc
Well-Known Member
To bring the thread back on-topic... (ahem)
I fitted NASA Clipper log, depth, and wind to my Bene in 1999. No problems with it at all up until 2005 (when I sodl it). I still believe that the boat has them fitted and working after 14 years.
I now have Ratheon, and since 2003 I've had to replace the depth twice, the wind once, the Autopilot unit (with gyro, which was 'kin expensive), and had lots of agro with the log transducer.
So IMHO, NASA is better that Ratheon (if I were replacing it all now though, I'd probably go for Garmin, as I hear only good things about their kit).
I fitted NASA Clipper log, depth, and wind to my Bene in 1999. No problems with it at all up until 2005 (when I sodl it). I still believe that the boat has them fitted and working after 14 years.
I now have Ratheon, and since 2003 I've had to replace the depth twice, the wind once, the Autopilot unit (with gyro, which was 'kin expensive), and had lots of agro with the log transducer.
So IMHO, NASA is better that Ratheon (if I were replacing it all now though, I'd probably go for Garmin, as I hear only good things about their kit).
Amulet
Well-Known Member
Broadly happy with a full house of NASA kit. (My masthead unit has just given up after 11 years.) There is a tedious repeat of NASA good or bad threads. A few instances ago I scanned and counted all the old ones I could find and discovered that the positive comments essentially equalled the negative ones. Subtracting the comments from Seajet the positive quite strongly outnumbered the negative. Log, echosounder, fluxgate, navtex and battery monitors all work fine for me. Replaced the log paddle wheel a couple of times in ten years. AIS is a primitive beast, but I have learned to read and understand it. I would not particularly defend NASA, even though their kit works for me, but any assertion that previous forum threads are overwhelmingly negative is a misrepresentation of the facts.
rogerhudson
Member
I can see the burgee etc. but my tillerpilot (sinbad) needs AWA when steering in wind mode, I really do want a masthead sensor but can't decide which.
Tintin
Well-Known Member
+1
Seajet
...
Feel free to subtract my comments, but they're based on fact sadly, their masthead windspeed job is an invention by Satan himself on a bad day.
I would love to have something positive to say about NASA, the reason I went to them in the first place is I try to support British business.
One positive comment; their Clipper Depthsounder works well.
I would love to have something positive to say about NASA, the reason I went to them in the first place is I try to support British business.
One positive comment; their Clipper Depthsounder works well.
Burnham Bob
Well-Known Member
Interesting this is still going! Marketing expereince says disgruntled customers sing out and happy ones keep quiet. THanks for counting the good vs bad and seeing that they came up even. Pace Seajet but as I'll be saving £200 I think I'll go for the NASA unit when I can sneak the expenditure past SWMBO.
Gwylan
Well-Known Member
If you have the choice think very hard. The NASA unit is the weakest product in their range, in my experience. I would replace mine if I thought I really needed a wind instrument.
Amulet
Well-Known Member
N.B. I was being pedantically correct in asserting an even balance. These data, in my opinion, probably still indicate that NASA equipment is less reliable than that from other manufacturers. ALL the threads were started by a less than gruntled customer. Others like me then chip in to defend NASA. Therefore, the evidence is that noone STARTS a thread to make a positive comment. There are next to no threads started complaining about equipment from other manufacturers. Of course, 'cos it's cheap, there's more NASA gear about.
I simply couldn't afford the range of stuff I have from a more expensive manufacturer. I have my (wooden) mast down every winter, and can check out the mast head unit. I have been caught out this year with the mast up and the mast head unit defunct - trip up the mast imminent.
My experience:
Wind instrument - starts to under-read after 3-4 years. Needs masthead unit overhaul (cheap). Not great.
Log - works fine unless the paddle wheel gets clogged up. Take it out and clean it. New paddle wheel every four years (cheap).
Depth sounder - Mostly OK but occasionally goes mental when in very dirty water or with a squishy bottom Annoying. Mucking around with the threshold fixes it.
Fluxgate - no complaints.
Navtex - never missed a beat.
AIS - developed a fault very early in its life - spare part to fix it arrived day after phone call and did the job (free). Now faultless for 6 years.
Battery monitors - wonderful. I have one on each battery bank and they have changed my life - I now know exactly what is going on with the batteries. Some have reported problems installing these and getting them to work. My two worked fine straight away and have ever since.
All in all, they could do better, but are probably as good as I can afford. On sailing on other people's boats I have seen hopelessly unreliable equipment from Brookes and Gatehouse and from Raymarine, so I'm not convinced that spending more would necessarily have achieved perfection.
Burnham Bob
Well-Known Member
Had originally thought to install the tacktick entry level system but that as been dscontinued. there's a new system from nexus that's wireless and cheaper than the full fat tacktick. googled that and at £600 odd there's nothing but compaints about it not working. oh dear.........
Seajet
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Burnham Bob,
I'd suggest experience is a better substitute for such instruments; if you can't rely on them and have to mentally apply a ' spoof increment ' there's not much point spending the money on them !
This applies to all instruments and calibration, not just NASA; in the days before Decca & GPS we calibrated our trail log on the ' measured mile ' in the Solent, I wonder how many people would bother then or even now watching the GPS ?
I'd suggest experience is a better substitute for such instruments; if you can't rely on them and have to mentally apply a ' spoof increment ' there's not much point spending the money on them !
This applies to all instruments and calibration, not just NASA; in the days before Decca & GPS we calibrated our trail log on the ' measured mile ' in the Solent, I wonder how many people would bother then or even now watching the GPS ?
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AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
Anyone else got a clue what he's on about?
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Seajet
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My dearest Angus,
I'm sure you know really...
Experience with a boat ( or kilt in your case ) gives one a good clue what the wind is doing, and wool telltales + a windex give the direction information if there's not a girlfriend available.
I'm sure you know really...
Experience with a boat ( or kilt in your case ) gives one a good clue what the wind is doing, and wool telltales + a windex give the direction information if there's not a girlfriend available.
AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
Experience with a boat ( or kilt in your case ) gives one a good clue what the wind is doing, and wool telltales + a windex give the direction information if there's not a girlfriend available.
Spoof increments? Kilts? Girlfriends!
Nope. Still don't know what you're on about. I think you should stick to singing the praises of your winch, er sorry, I mean boat. We know where we are with that. Got any pictures you can show us?