NASA intruments

Current NASA instruments have NMEA output so can interface with integrated systems.
Stemar said:
I've had NASA instruments log & depth on my boat for years and there's nothing wrong with them, but if you're thinking about going for an integrated system on a year or two, why spend several hundred pounds on instruments that won't talk to that system?

By all means, fit a depth sounder - that's important if you aren't keen on unscheduled stops, but you don't need a log unless you're racing; the GPS in your phone will tell you how fast you're going, and the only use for a wind instrument is bragging rights in the bar - "There I was in wind over tide, the windex gave up at 55 knots... ". A multihull might need one, but your boat will tell you very clearly when you're over- or under-canvased and a simple arrow on the vhf antenna will tell you the direction if you need a hand with sail trim.

A plotter app on phone or tablet is something I would invest in now. It won't be dear and will serve you now as well as make a useful backup to your all-singing all dancing system when you get it.
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Sandy said:
Why do people insist in keeping the log in the hull when the boat is not being used!
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Because the fitting for it is in the bottom of a food locker rather than the bilge, which means I need to empty out the contents, swap the transducer, sponge out the water, dry off the GRP, then put the food back. And that's far more faff than I can be bothered with before and after every sail.

I clean the log before an offshore passage. For short local trips, it works or not depending how long it's been left.

Pete
 
MS_Adventure said:
Is the fitting of the transducer in hull & log straightforward? Can the paddlewheels be replaced in situ?
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I've just fitted a NASA log and it fitted OK in the Stowe hole. Although not included with the instrument pack, NASA have a blanking plug which can be purchased separately. Wireless wind fitted last year and the paddles haven't disappeared so far. Depth transponder glued inside the hull and works well, as does the gps repeater.
 
They are what they are!

Why do you need a log?
Any GPS does the job better and more accurately. Also do not generally need a hole in the bottom [of the boat]
Have a NASA GPS log thingie fitted at the nav station - does the necessary.

Based on experience resign yourself to the 'cups' on the windy thing not lasting as long as you hope.
The little nut that holds the cups on is a piece of design madness - make sure you have severa lspares, it is guaranteed to be dropped as you try and install the replacement cups.

Tell tales on the stays give a 'reasonanble' and simpler indication of the wind direction.
The windex at the top of the mast gives a pretty good indication of relative position to the wind.
If you need a wind speed to tell you when to reef then maybe sailing is not for you.

The rest all seems to function well after 10 years.
 
Gwylan said:
Based on experience resign yourself to the 'cups' on the windy thing not lasting as long as you hope.
The little nut that holds the cups on is a piece of design madness - make sure you have several spares, it is guaranteed to be dropped as you try and install the replacement cups.
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I noticed recently that some (but not all) of NASA's current wind transducers are a revised design. There is a clear difference in the shape and assembly of the body, but don't know if the somewhat notorious cup/whirly bit arrangement has been changed.

And well out of the NASA budget category, I see Digital Yacht are now producing an 'ultra tough' wind sensor - UV resistant plastic, proper bearings, etc. It's wire (though a thin one) down the mast only and no instrument head: £300 with just NMEA 0183 output; £450 with a (below deck) wireless output for iOS/Android. https://digitalyacht.co.uk/product/wnd100-wind-sensor/
(I've no connection (sic) with DY (except satisfied purchaser of a DY AIS thingy), I just found it of interest.)
 
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Just one comment on the wind instrument issue . . .

I have sailed Fairwinds for years without a working wind instrument, and agree if you need one then maybe you shouldn't be sailing. However, I am now considering installing one on the Morgan Giles 30 I am fitting out for a trip to the Canaries.

The reason is, my partner is not an experienced sailor (yet), and on a night watch it is easier to say to her 'call me if the wind speed goes above 18 knots for more than ten minutes' than it is to say 'call me if you think we need a reef'. Similarly, it gives her more information and an opportunity ot learn the correlation between boat performance, sea state and wind speed.

Of course, it will be a cheapo NASA unit and will probably only last a couple of years before I have to bribe someone younger to go up the mast, but heyho.

- W
 
Gwylan said:
They are what they are!

Why do you need a log?
Any GPS does the job better and more accurately. Also do not generally need a hole in the bottom [of the boat]
Have a NASA GPS log thingie fitted at the nav station - does the necessary.

Based on experience resign yourself to the 'cups' on the windy thing not lasting as long as you hope.
The little nut that holds the cups on is a piece of design madness - make sure you have severa lspares, it is guaranteed to be dropped as you try and install the replacement cups.

Tell tales on the stays give a 'reasonanble' and simpler indication of the wind direction.
The windex at the top of the mast gives a pretty good indication of relative position to the wind.
If you need a wind speed to tell you when to reef then maybe sailing is not for you.

The rest all seems to function well after 10 years.
Click to expand...

I need windspeed when sitting in the marina where I love to read those 50+ numbers :D
 
Gwylan said:
Why do you need a log?
Any GPS does the job better and more accurately. Also do not generally need a hole in the bottom [of the boat]
Have a NASA GPS log thingie fitted at the nav station - does the necessary
Click to expand...
GPS doesn't tell you your speed through the water which I find useful to let me know how efficiently I'm sailing and, by comparison with GPS, how strong the tide is.
I agree that a wind instrument is unnecessary unless your linking it to an autopilot. If my hat blows off, it's time to reef. I like woolies on the shrouds to indicate direction. While not as accurate as a masthead windex, they are easier to see for men with stiff necks who find it awkward to look sharply upwards.
 
Graham376 said:
I've just fitted a NASA log and it fitted OK in the Stowe hole. Although not included with the instrument pack, NASA have a blanking plug which can be purchased separately. Wireless wind fitted last year and the paddles haven't disappeared so far. Depth transponder glued inside the hull and works well, as does the gps repeater.
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Hi, Graham376, is there anything worth noting in the process of fitting the log? Did you glass it in? Straightforward job? Thanks
 
MS_Adventure said:
Hi, Graham376, is there anything worth noting in the process of fitting the log? Did you glass it in? Straightforward job? Thanks
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As usual, hardest part is routing the cable but Just followed the instructions for the hull unit and glassed over the nut. If you use the existing Stowe cable to the instrument display, the light wire is obsolete as the NASA light works from the power wires.

They have a new electronic log due on the market, no moving parts - https://www.nasamarine.com/product/electromagnetic-log/
 
My excuses for contemplating getting a wind instrument are
(a) when the weather's 'horrid I retreat to the wheelhouse, where I can neither feel the wind, nor see the masthead indicator; and
(b) I have my own ideas about what a force x, y or z looks/feels like, but I've always wondered quite how closely this relates to the objective numbers.
 
The NASA clipper instruments are good and I used them on my previous boat. On my current boat (Moody) only the wind instrument is NASA, the rest of them are Raymarine, but I will not hesitate installing new NASA clipper instruments.
 
I was a bit concerned about the through hull log fitting on my most recent boat after a talk at our sailing club when someone mentioned his had broken and fallen out. The NASA instructions do state that the skin fittings should be glassed in but to be honest I had never done this before. I therefore did it which proved dead easy and quick. The method I used was clean and rough up the surrounding area, cut four circles of mat of decreasing sizes. Cut a cross in the middle of each one large enough to insert the spigot of the fitting. Apply resin to the surrounding area, pop the smallest mat circle over fitting (dry), bed on resin, wet out with resin taking care to keep the thread clean, repeat with other circles, allow to cure.
Relax.
 
ghostlymoron said:
I was a bit concerned about the through hull log fitting on my most recent boat after a talk at our sailing club when someone mentioned his had broken and fallen out. The NASA instructions do state that the skin fittings should be glassed in but to be honest I had never done this before. I therefore did it which proved dead easy and quick. The method I used was clean and rough up the surrounding area, cut four circles of mat of decreasing sizes. Cut a cross in the middle of each one large enough to insert the spigot of the fitting. Apply resin to the surrounding area, pop the smallest mat circle over fitting (dry), bed on resin, wet out with resin taking care to keep the thread clean, repeat with other circles, allow to cure.
Relax.
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Yes, it also happened to me and it is a bit interesting when you have the broken fitting in your hand and can see daylight through the bottom of your boat. The plastic at the joint between the flange and the tube is very thin, when you see a broken one. The fact that NASA have replacement fittings readily available suggests that they sell quite a few. Like you, I knew better than NASA so didn't bother to glass it in as instructed.
I did follow the instructions with the replacement.
 
I think it's a mistake to spend time and money fitting NASA instruments as a temporary measure. I'd think carefully about what i wanted the final system to look like and fit stuff now that will be part of that system.

The NASA wind instrument is pretty much stand alone, it certainly is in this case, so there is no urgent need for fitting one. The depth instrument is also largely stand alone, it isn't going to particularly fit in with a modern, integrated system.

I'd fit an Airmar DST800, which will give you depth, speed and water temp. Then add a display that can show you that information, from the manufacturer that you will ultimately use for the full system in the future. For instance, a Garmin GMi 20 or a Raymarine i70. Both displays come up on Ebay if you can wait a little while. You could add an NMEA2000 wind sensor if you wanted, that would also display on the aforementioned screens.

You could look around for a used plotter that supports NMEA2000 and use that to display speed and depth data too, rather than the smaller instruments above. There are a few Garmin and Raymarine units on Ebay.

You could fit the DST800 and a display for less than £100. At a later date you can add a plotter and anything else you want and it will all integrate with the above, no need to rip out 12 month old NASA stuff which will have a very low market value, plus the through hull will be different (different size too).
 
Paul, check out the NASA site, all their instruments now provide NMEA 0183 output so can communicate with plotters etc. Also their new paddleless log sensor seems superior even to the Airmar unit although it doesn't combine with depth or temperature.
 
ghostlymoron said:
Paul, check out the NASA site, all their instruments now provide NMEA 0183 output so can communicate with plotters etc. Also their new paddleless log sensor seems superior even to the Airmar unit although it doesn't combine with depth or temperature.
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They have been using NMEA0183 for some time now. Problem is, most manufacturers are phasing out 0183 in favour of N2K.

I'm not knocking NASA equipment, if it fits ones needs it's OK. But i think it's a false economy to fit it for a year or so, when it isn't what you really want.
 
This is a funny one , I have just replaced all old Nasa with new ones , Depth, Log, Wind and connected to OCPN (gps) but there is 5 instruments and I have a type 2 Raymarine Auto pilot type 2 linear , which is N2K ,
Now as a relative newbie to all this I went down the road of redundancy , i,e if the Depth went it was only the Depth sensor , were as if it is all integrated into say 2 instruments with multiply functions , you lose more if that one went down .
Is this being overly cautious and paranoid or am I missing something and the new tec is pretty robust.
I use a tablet on the helm from main computer at nav station
 
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