Quandary
Well-known member
When we stepped the mast at Easter, I kept the wind tranducer, vhf/ windex off and the got my wife to winch me up to fit them. ( my ratio of crane mast lifts to transducer damage is about 1 in 3). When she lowered me back to deck the wind speed display was just showing two dashes but the direction looked OK. I redid all the choc block connectors in the table leg to no avail but when I eventually got back to the top of the mast and unplugged the transducer arm, checked that there were no bent pins and put it on again everything worked.
It worked fine until yesterday, we came round Calve Island to meet a fresh gust and the true wind speed display started showing only the boat speed and the needle pointed straight aft though the wind was ahead; when I switched from true to apparent the wind arrow showed the correct (apparent) direction but the wind speed showed just --. It seemed that the display head was getting wind direction information but not speed so it applied the boat speed and thought the wind must be aft rather than ahead? A few hours later as we entered the shelter of Crinan Sea lock and the wind was down to well below 10 kts, the wind speed started to show what seemed to be the correct numbers again with the correct true speed and direction. So at the moment it may be OK but there is obviously a problem.
It would seem to my limited experience, most likely that there is a dodgy connection on one of the pins at the masthead where the arm goes in to the base fitting but before I try to persuade my wife to wind me all the way up there again is there anything else worth checking. If I do get back up there what is the best action, some sort of spray, WD40?
Apologies, I realize I should have posted this on PBO but you guys all read both don't you?
It worked fine until yesterday, we came round Calve Island to meet a fresh gust and the true wind speed display started showing only the boat speed and the needle pointed straight aft though the wind was ahead; when I switched from true to apparent the wind arrow showed the correct (apparent) direction but the wind speed showed just --. It seemed that the display head was getting wind direction information but not speed so it applied the boat speed and thought the wind must be aft rather than ahead? A few hours later as we entered the shelter of Crinan Sea lock and the wind was down to well below 10 kts, the wind speed started to show what seemed to be the correct numbers again with the correct true speed and direction. So at the moment it may be OK but there is obviously a problem.
It would seem to my limited experience, most likely that there is a dodgy connection on one of the pins at the masthead where the arm goes in to the base fitting but before I try to persuade my wife to wind me all the way up there again is there anything else worth checking. If I do get back up there what is the best action, some sort of spray, WD40?
Apologies, I realize I should have posted this on PBO but you guys all read both don't you?
