Wind instruments - Replace?

[andyb28]

Good Evening All,

I have a new to me Parker sail boat and she needs some tlc.
The wind instruments are not working and this was noted on the survey. As the boat was transported, the mast is currently down. So this is a good opportunity to fix them.

The instruments are Autohelm (I think thats Raymarine?)

My plan is to test the continuity of the cables in the mast and I am thinking I should just replace the wind transducer with a new one. My question is, are transducers paired to certain brands? i.e do I need an Autohelm / Raymarine one?
I hope to replace the transducer and then get the mast put up and see if I need to change the instruments too.

I am also going to change the bulbs on the mast lights to LED (or replace the light unit completely, depending on condition).

Lastly, is there anything else I should do whilst the mast is down?

Many thanks
Andy

 

[Sandy]

Do you have NMEA 2000 onboard? If not I'd consider changing to that.

I am a big fan of Garmin as they appear to be more robust than Raymarine and I have found that the UK support has been excellent.

Replacing the lamps is a great move. Might also be worth looking at the radio antenna and wiring.

 

[andyb28]

Great question.
I do not actually know the answer to, but I will investigate further. I am guessing the answer is no as the boat doesn't have a central gps plotter.

This I will be adding, but haven't got far enough yet to decide on a make / model.
My old boat had a Raymarine Axiom, but I never really used it as it was easier using Navionics on an iPad. Perhaps this leads me further into the Garmin camp?

 

[johnalison]

The current tendency is to have all the instruments linked and this had various advantages, as well as making the wiring simpler. As well as being able to get parameters such as true wind, you can take them all to the plotter and display them there. I am way behind what is now available as my system is about ten years old, so I imagine that even more integration is now considered normal. It can be possible to link transducers and units from different companies but this will normally be just plug and go if you stick to one.

 

[PaulRainbow]

The wind transducer must be Raymarine to work with the Autohelm display. The instruments in your picture do not use NMEA 2000, they are Seatalk. They can be linked together and can be connected to a converter to integrate with whatever plotter etc you decide to go for.

 

[Martin_J]

Raymarine give all the test information for the ST50 masthead unit (likely installed with those instrument heads) here...

Raymarine Masthead Wind Transducer Test

 

[oldbloke]

If they are broken, take them off and go without for a year . I dont have any and I can't say that I have ever felt the lack

 

[Refueler]

I have a useless B&G Wind set .... drives me nuts as its something that you just cannot resist tinkering with ...

It would be better if it wasn't there. Its part of an overall B&G network set ... and of course the others work OK ... speed / depth ...

TBH - I used the Windex as I do on my other boats ... until a Seagull or whatever decided to sit on the 'arrow' part and now its lost half ... needs replacement.

I may just remove the Wind part and replace with a NASA wireless unit .. and give up the integration.

 

[andyb28]

Raymarine give all the test information for the ST50 masthead unit (likely installed with those instrument heads) here...

Raymarine Masthead Wind Transducer Test

Thank you, this is super helpful. I will do the tests.

I agree in general with the other comments, I don't really need them. I have down sized from a Motorboat and a smaller Sailboat to one boat. Whilst the motorboat had all the bells and whistles, the sailboat had very little. I just used to put my ipad in a waterproof bag or use my phone.

I was just trying to get some bits done whilst the mast was down.