Tacktick instruments

I have the entry level wind system, I thought the extra £100 over a wired system was well worth the faff of dropping a cable down the rig in situ, and it's been faultless since installation.
 
Got the wind display and agree the lack of wiring is a real bonus, both for connecting instruments together and being solar powered.

However I don't find the wind indicator very reliable for direction when I compare it to the visible indicator at the top of the mast. It can be 20-30 degrees out which is hopeless. I have calibrated it so that it matches at head to wind but that barely helped.
 
Rupert, there should be a way of calibrating it in every wind direction, calibrating head to wind probably isn't enough.

The tacktick system is brilliant, we have quite a comprehensive system on a J that I race and it really is quite impressive, the amount of information it will collate and display is impressive. Although in cruising form, I think the entry level system will be more than enough.
 
monkfish24 said:
Rupert, there should be a way of calibrating it in every wind direction, calibrating head to wind probably isn't enough.
Click to expand...

Couldn't find anything but head to wind in the manual. I'm put off replacing the rest of the instruments with tactick by the unreliability of this one.

Everyone else I've spoken to has found theirs to be fine but I can only go on my experience with the one I inherited with the boat.
 
Got the entry-level system: it kept losing the connection to the masthead (11m mast); very helpful owner of TackTick made various suggestions & eventually sent a signal booster that ties round the mast below the boom; very reliable since then (signal drops perhaps once a month; always reconnects on reboot). Worth the hassle of no mast cable.
 
All_at_Sea said:
I'm going for the entry level system as l don't race so thnks for the feedback, l'll go ahead and order.
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I have the entry level wind system and also their nmea wireless interface.

The instructions for the latter were misleading since the interface, though it has hard wired nmea inputs as well, only seems to recognise and therefore transmit gps data. I wanted to use it to merge depth data as well, but it won't. The manufacturers were of little help and not interested in clarifying the instructions and info on their website as regards what other nmea data was recognised. The Raymarine tech support guy didn't seemed to know much about Tacktick gear and thought the nmea inputs were only for gps data so true wind speed and direction could be calculated.
 
alanwilson said:
Got the entry-level system: it kept losing the connection to the masthead (11m mast); very helpful owner of TackTick made various suggestions & eventually sent a signal booster that ties round the mast below the boom; very reliable since then (signal drops perhaps once a month; always reconnects on reboot). Worth the hassle of no mast cable.
Click to expand...

Please tell me more about this.
tend to loose the signal at least a couple of times daily (masthead height 19.6m).
Unit been back to Tacktick a couple of times: first time the fault was supposed to be fixed by a firmware update, second time batteries were replaced. Fault still with us.
Never been suggested/offered a signal booster.
 
Second year with entry level wind system giving me the apparent wind speed and direction. No problems which is a blessing after struggling for years with a Navman, before diitching it. I considered it not worth the extra money on a GPS box to get true wind speed and direction.
 
All_at_Sea said:
Has anyone used these units, l'm just about to buy the combined wind, log, depth system and wondered how they perform.
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I believe they're perfectly satisfactory until the rechargeable battery in the masthead unit needs replacing, then it's a couple of trips up the mast to fix it!
 
Ours is about eight months old and has been very good. I chose it over a Simrad system on the basis of cost - both for the components and for installation - but did not factor in the cost of the NMEA interface - with the benefit of hindsight, I would probably have gone for the wired Simrad setup. If you do not want the NMEA interface functionality, then Tacktick is fine.

To the contributor that complained about the accuracy of the wind direction indicator, it may be worth increasing the damping factor in the setup - I think the Tacktick wind direction sensor is more "frisky" than the average windex and if the damping is too low, the needle skips around.
 
Good kit

I've had Tacktick kit in two boats over the past 4 years. Good results with both (the first had the wind gauge and the hull log/sounder; the second just has the log/sounder).

The most recent installation is in a Hawk 20 with no 12v electrics; the transducer gets its power from a 9v PP3 battery. No probs at all.

No commercial interest in the company, but very happy to endorse the equipment.
 
Fitted them to the last boat - no problems in four/five years.

Fitted them to the 'new' boat and had an issue pairing the mast head transducer- one swift phone call and a trip up the mast for the display in a poly bag tied to the spare halyard and all was well.

Why faff with a load of wires when you don't have too?
 
uxb said:
It was only the display head that went up the mast...in a bag, on the halyard.
Click to expand...

you have answered a question that had always puzzled me - why is there that 15 second delay between invoking the "pairing" function and pairing actually happening - now I understand - it gives you time to haul it up the mast - clever!
 
Hmm interesting topic, I have tacktick 100 depth/speed and wind, all approx 5 years old. Depth speed ok most of the time but do require a reboot from time to time, but the bearing on the mast head unit rusted away so the reading became increasingly inaccurate, which necessitated a replacement masthead unit for approx £150. I fitted this, and found that the cockpit display could no longer sync with the masthead unit (worked fine before). Sent both back to Raymarine who said that the radio receiver in the display is intermittent and £280 later I now have a new 112 display unit. The distance between my mast head and the display is approx 17m.. Haven't fitted yet but will advise if i have problems.

My view? Unreliable and poorly designed and I wouldn't buy them again. I am always having to reboot the system to re-establish the connection, particularly unnerving when you need to know the depth. IMHO Go for the hassle with a proper cabled system..
 
We've had a comprehensive [three display] system for 6 years and are very pleased with it overall. Only problem has been the wind transducer where bearings needed replacing after ca. 3 years and which got "sticky" after another 2 years. The second time I squirted Wurth Ultra 2040 into it and that did the trick [it contains PTFE]. The solar panels always keep the batteries fully charged.
 
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