Nasa Wind

[oakleyb]

After two years i've decided to invest, went to chandlery today but was warned away from them - they are ##### It was the cheapest range i was looking at so maybe some truth in his words. I do feel however that if he did atually stock them maybe his views would be slightly different - any stories from the forum

 

[Sandyman]

what do you need it for ??? Telltales on the shrouds do me fine.

 

[Heckler]

Nasa wind is ok except the unit at the top of the mast is quite fragile, they break the spindle and in the early ones the star washer that held the cups on used to disappear and then so did the cups. Spares are cheap but you will probably go up the mast every year or so! Thats what I used to do!
Stu

 

[steve28]

the new cups and vanes on the nasa head units are good for at least five years i was told.
The instrument is also helpful if you want to connect up the nmea out to allow your autopilot to steer with the wind data.

in ten years i am on 2nd set of cups and 1st vane still

steve

 

[mikejames]

After some years of owning and repeatedly reassembling my NASA wind instrument, I gave up for several years.
Basically - the nylon bearings wear out. The spring clips rust off . Theplastic goes brittle after UV has got it, the cups fall off. And then the wind direction magnet corrodes , jams and bursts. In the end the pin through the cups shook loose from the head.

I ended up buying a quality but worn masthead sender in Yot Grot, doing that up but never quite getting around to interfacing and fitting it to the NASA display. (not easy)

On receipt of a redundancy payout and the rapid finding of another job....

After much reflection I decided to go for a Simrad IS20 wind kit at £575 to go with their TP22 tillerpilot I bought because the wind sender should easily outlast four NASA wind instruments.

Tacktick would be another good choice but expensive - I wanted to go with an integrated system. To get NMEA out takes the price over £1000

Navico are not in the market at present.

Raymarine could be a possibility but I wanted a more waterproof tillerpilot, forgoing the LCD for a better chance of keeping water out.

 

[Bodach na mara]

I had an Autonic unit on the boat when I bought and when it broke for the third time I had become used to having access to a windspeed reading. I looked at alternatives (B&G mainly) but did not like the displays, Also the Nasa was a lot cheaper. I got the Clipper model and am genegally happy with it. My mast comes down each winter so arranging for a plug was the main difficulty in installation.

 

[Gwylan]

Re: Nasa Wind - NMEA to autohelm

Tell me how you do that please?

 

[kieronriley]

Re: Nasa Wind - NMEA to autohelm

yes they are #### as you have been told i,m fed up of buying new mastop units and spoons this year its not gooing back up

 

[webcraft]

We have had one on the boat since we bought it, nearly six years ago - and it wasn't new then. I've had to reglue the pin twice and it looks/feels as though it is going to break any minute but is still working, so it has been good value for us. I would hate to have to repair it when the mast was up though - have done the two sets of repairs in the winter when the mast is down.

Am thinking of buying a new masthead unit before relaunch - if it lasted five years I would be very happy.

AllGadgets are good for NASA stuff.

- W

 

[oldharry]

Re: Nasa Wind - NMEA to autohelm

Electronic bits and displays seem to be Ok. As indicated above the masthead units are not. Mine worked fine for 6 months then the direction vane blade broke off. Cormorants, thought I. When them ast came down the plastic was completely brittle and just crumbled away between my fingers. New blade supplied. The cups then went brittle and also broke off. Replaced. The blade broke again. Stroppy letter to NASA produced a new masthead unit in white plastic. (The original was black) This was installed. A few weeks later there was a severe gale (well severe by Solent standards: 50kts+ - not one of Skipper Stu's Irish Sea gales!) Seemed fine, but then realised it was under- reading. Winds never went above 15 -20kts, even tho Chimet was giving 30+. The bearings had failed. Another new masthead unit, but at that point I sold the boat anyway. Thats was all within 18 months of purchase.

It seems there are good ones around which last for years, perhaps Steve28 can tell us how his differs from our less reliable ones? Mine was certainly ****

The 'new' boat has Navman, which also has a certain reputation, but so far has worked perfectly for the 2 seasons I have had it.

 

[RestlessL]

Re: Nasa Wind - NMEA to autohelm

Mine lasted less than 3 months before the cups stopped rotating.

 

[neil_s]

Mine was second hand when I got it four years ago. I am replacing the cups this year because the bearing has worn out but generally I've been very happy with it. I take the mast down every year and I fitted a waterproof plug and socket in the wind instrument cable so I can take the masthead unit off and keep it safe at home during the winter.

Cheers! neil

 

[hubert]

The white masthead units look much more robust. The "spoons" are held on by a nylock nut and there is a waterproof connector at the top. A big improvement.

 

[Mudisox]

Having spent twice as much for a replacement wind unit of another make and it failing after les than 6 months and no joy on the guarentees quoted, I bought a new white unit from Nasa last season.
Not as refined as others perhaps, but does what it says on the tin. I am quite happy with it. Time alone will tell.

 

[ditchcrawler]

Tacktick now do a budget version(still not cheap) that you can get for £350 ish if you shop around.The display has to be hard wired to 12v(no solar) but the connection to mast is still wireless.I have the solar one & very pleased.

 

[steve6367]

The original mast head unit was rubbish - however I now have a new design white unit and all seems to be ok.

Despite having all Raymarine kit on the boat I couln't bring myself to spend the amount of money they want for an ST60 wind.

Steve

 

[Amulet]

There's scope for failure, and sometimes doubtful accuracy.
I started asking around the marina - not obvious that spending more money solves the problem. Plenty people with units that cost three times as much as my NASA also bitching.

 

[Refueler]

With all the moans and groans about wind gear - I've wondered whether a land based gear could be adapted. I accept that you may have problems setting it as related to boats heading, but as most of us are looking (well I am anyway) for relative wind to boats head ?
Considering some environments land based ones sit in - maybe there's possibility ?

There is also the NMEA output masthead gear that you can feed to a plotter or other display.