Installing wind instrument

[Leighb]

Your experience may be peculiar to Australia. There's little problem in the UK with bird damage to wind transducers. And I can't remember a problem in any UK marina with mast tops getting tangled. Good quality wired wind transducers are very reliable.

As for paddle wheel log transducers, the secret is simply to antifoul them.

We don't have the exotic bird quoted here, at least not in Suffolk, however I have seen pigeons and crows perched on wind instruments and they are not exactly light, so I expect could cause damage?

Regarding log transducers, we simply remove ours when the boat is not in use, when away for several weeks I take it out and have a look every 2 or 3 weeks and usually find nothing, occasionally the odd crustacean. I think they only get foul when the boat is not being used.

 

[Chris_Robb]

What? You have to take it off every winter? Why on earth is that required?

Some people do - when I had Ray Marine ones - the mast head unit blew away in a gale!

 

[Cloven]

What? You have to take it off every winter? Why on earth is that required?

That is exactly what I do, take off the mast head unit at the end of the season and back up at the start of the next. Saves 7 months of the year with the MHU exposed to the weather. I have a Raymarine ST50 which is still working perfectly using this method and it dates from 1998 when the boat was new.

Just do a search through past threads and you will see how many people have problems with MHUs that are left up year round.

 

[pvb]

That is exactly what I do, take off the mast head unit at the end of the season and back up at the start of the next. Saves 7 months of the year with the MHU exposed to the weather. I have a Raymarine ST50 which is still working perfectly using this method and it dates from 1998 when the boat was new.

Just do a search through past threads and you will see how many people have problems with MHUs that are left up year round.

I don't see anyone in my marina going up the mast to remove the wind transducer every winter. The transducer on my old boat had been up there constantly for 24 years and was still working fine. I know there are lots of posts on past threads about problems with Nasa and Tacktick transducers, but most decent stuff will withstand 365 days a year exposure.

 

[Cloven]

I don't see anyone in my marina going up the mast to remove the wind transducer every winter. The transducer on my old boat had been up there constantly for 24 years and was still working fine. I know there are lots of posts on past threads about problems with Nasa and Tacktick transducers, but most decent stuff will withstand 365 days a year exposure.

I can only say as I do & see. Many boats in the marina where we are based do NOT take MHUs down but an awful lot of these either spin very slowly or not at all - and I am comparing like with like as I appreciate different makes spin at different speeds. I use a mast climbing ladder and I have lent this to several others so they can get up the mast and see if they can free up sticking or stuck MHUs.

 

[William_H]

Now for a note of negativity.. Of course it is iteresting to know how hard the wind is blowing and from what direction... saves bending the neck to look up.. however you will find that the instruments on top of the mast cause more problems than all the rest of the boat put together. (excluding paddle wheel log) This mainly from damage by birds or in our marina mast tops hitting one another. or just plain electrical problems all of which require purchase of new mast head units and the horrible trip to the top of the mast or taking mast down. So I say for peace of mind resist buying the wind instruments unless someone can provide same without rotating parts. good luck olewill

Quite so to all those who commented. I never really meant this to be the last word on advice. However I did want to point out that the promise of wonderful data being provided into the future with no problems does not always eventuate. I( imagine OP will as so many others have done fit the instruments and I wish him well with it) olewill