Wind Gear............what use is it ?

[Sandyman]

Just been reading this thread about wind instruments (http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?363633-st60-wind-instrument-problems) and I was thinking:

Having never found the need for such equipment, I was wondering what benefit & what use they are , besides telling you what should be obvious ? Apart from the wind being stronger at the top of the mast compared to the deck.

Is this gear just another toy for the boys ?

 

[prv]

If it can take input from the log and calculate true wind, it can be useful when you're motoring in a calm to see whether there's enough wind to stop the engine and sail. You can't tell this directly because you're generating plenty of apparent breeze with the tin topsail. You can look at the ripples on the water, of course, but I do find a definite figure on the display is useful, especially once you're used to the boat and know how many knots you need for it to be worth sailing.

Other than that, mostly curiosity. I instinctively look at the masthead for direction (used to have a burgee on Kindred Spirit, plus dinghies before her) and strength is obvious from the behaviour of the boat.

Pete

 

[ChrisE]

Just been reading this thread about wind instruments (http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?363633-st60-wind-instrument-problems) and I was thinking:

Having never found the need for such equipment, I was wondering what benefit & what use they are , besides telling you what should be obvious ? Apart from the wind being stronger at the top of the mast compared to the deck.

Is this gear just another toy for the boys ?

Oh, it's a must-have. How else can you sit in YC bar saying the wind was up to 50 knots (forgetting that it was a one second gust on an otherwise benign day) .....

 

[awol]

Well apart from bragging rights in the bar ..... it stops me getting a crick in the neck on long downwind legs (yes, sometimes I sail downwind!); it is very useful at night for trimming and spotting wind-shifts; it gives you warning of what the wind will be like when you turn and head up-wind; it interfaces with the auto-tiller to steer to the wind; it gives information to check with my mental polar diagram and compare with boat speed; ..... there must be more.

 

[Spyro]

Input to your auto helm is useful if you want to sail to the wind and never adjust the sails. I wouldn't know though, I don't have that option.

 

[mjcoon]

Input to your auto helm is useful if you want to sail to the wind and never adjust the sails. I wouldn't know though, I don't have that option.

Fortunately, when you are doing that, the auto-helm (at least the one(s) I have experienced) also keep an "eye" on the magnetic heading, and warn you if that deviates too far from what it was when you started sailing via wind direction. Which is probably when you need to adjust the sails.

I'm sure that the alternative wind-vane steering systems, which do not have power-hungry intelligence, fail to do that...

Mike.

 

[maby]

I agree that wind speed is not so important but I do like wind direction on an instrument - I have problems with my neck and gazing at the masthead is difficult at least, if not positively painful!

 

[oldvarnish]

Having never found the need for such equipment, I was wondering what benefit & what use they are

I know some of you have been following my blog (below). For long periods I was without instruments, including GPS, and it was VERY RELAXING.
You should draw up in your mind, as I did, a list of what you really need and what is there to provide amusement.

GPS, of course, tops the list of must-haves. Wind instruments are way down the scale, in my opinion. But useful for later bragging when you want to prove it was blowing 50 knots in the marina.....

 

[prv]

Wind instruments are way down the scale, in my opinion.

+1. GPS and depth are the only two important instruments as far as I'm concerned, and most of the time on KS were all I had. The log wheel tended to get packed with mud and I only bothered unclogging it for longer trips, and the previous owner had removed the wind instrument because "the damn whirly thing interferes with the flags". Not having boat speed was mildly annoying, but I never missed the "whirly thing".

Pete

 

[Bobc]

It can be useful when teaching a newbie to steer, when they can't feel where the wind is coming from. Other than that? Yes, a toy IMO

 

[awol]

Ah, those happy days when we set sail with nought but a needle in a floating cork for direction, a supply of twigs for speed measurement and a rock on the end of a string for depth. Not that we had much time for them.

 

[Daedelus]

SWMBO used to reckon it was there to scare the crew.

 

[KenMcCulloch]

Well apart from bragging rights in the bar ..... it stops me getting a crick in the neck on long downwind legs (yes, sometimes I sail downwind!); it is very useful at night for trimming and spotting wind-shifts; it gives you warning of what the wind will be like when you turn and head up-wind; it interfaces with the auto-tiller to steer to the wind; it gives information to check with my mental polar diagram and compare with boat speed; ..... there must be more.

i agree with m'honourable friend. Having got ours working eventually it is enormously useful for just the reasons adduced by Awol. With a well balanced boat like ours steering inputs are pretty minimal a lot of the time, so setting the Autohelm to steer to the wind vane doesn't draw a lot of battery power.

 

[dunedin]

We find the true wind speed calculation very useful (though not indispensable) for
- detecting when we can get the motor off and restart sailing - generally at 5 knots true wind speed, unless dead downwind
- assessing whether the sail set is optimised - is our boatspeed about rights for true wind and direction
Quite difficult to tell difference between 4 knots and 6 knots wind speed when under motor, but very material for our boat to get moving

 

[Neil_Y]

Being mainly a dinghy sailor these days I tend to forget they are there when yacht sailing, but they are useful as Bob said for helping a novice sail upwind or prevent a jibe. Most systems have a green/red angle upwind that beginners can aim to keep the needle in. This is often easier when you can't see the teltales or it's light wind.

 

[onesea]

Input to your auto helm is useful if you want to sail to the wind and never adjust the sails. I wouldn't know though, I don't have that option.

I have that option and useful it is to...

It can be useful when teaching a newbie to steer, when they can't feel where the wind is coming from. Other than that? Yes, a toy IMO

Use full for Newbies but then I hate teaching them about it as they become reliant on it rather than feeling the weather...

As others have said the true wind function is useful, I am more likey to let a reef out before reaching or running off down wind... Without it I would probably not take the reef out and go for the spinnaker on the way back...