Wind speed/direction displays

[By Invitation]

I am looking at the Raymarine wind speed indicators. The price difference between the ST40 and the ST60 is like 600.00 for basically the same diplayed informaiton. Does anyone have any opinions about these instruments and is it worth it to spend the extra 600 for the ST60???? I don't need exact to the tenth wind speed, nor do I need exact to the degree wind angle, I just need to know if it's blowing 25kts or 30kts and if my wind angle is relatively close to what I want.

Invitation

[John Drake]

Hello

I did not see as large a price difference between the two, maybe one quote includes the wind sensor.

That said, I would go for the ST60. It is a very robust system and its wind sensor is designed for sailboats. The rotovectra wind sensor in the ST40 system is for powerboats.

I have the ST60 and am very pleased with it. It was not cheap...but nothing on a sailboat is. It is a once every 10-15 yr purchase. Might as well spend the money.

Hope this helps

John
s/v Invictus

[By Invitation]

Thanks John,

I did not know that the rotovectra was for power boats and I am glad to hear that you like the St60. Thanks for the feedback.

[Jentine]

I can find no information that suggests that the ST40 is made for power boats. Why would a power boat need a 60' cable to connect the instrument to the sensor? Look at the following link to determine the difference for yourself.
IMHO the difference is in the quality of the display.

http://www.raymarine.com/raymarine/D...e=228&Parent=6

[GordMay]

The short arm wind vane transducer, standard with the ST60, acts like a windex - hence might be considered more sailboat friendly than the Rotovectra transducer (ST40), which does not offer a visual indication of (apparent) wind direction.
FWIW,
Gord

[Alan Wheeler]

12 yrs ago, I used to sell and service Raymarine , under the name Autohelm here in NZ way back then. It was not what I considered a reliable product, although it was well back up via the importer. It was expensive then, and still is now. I still hear of many issues with reliabilty today. I too am looking for a wind indicator. The home work I have done has lead me to two makes. Navman make a very very nice product in two versions. An analog and a ditgital wind indicator. The analog seems to have the better display and features. Infact IMO the display is the best I have seen on anything. And the price is not exhorbatent and certainly way less than the Raymarine version. The other unit I am looking closely at, is the new TackTic system. Expensive, but some very cool features. Firstly it is radio linked. So there are no interconnecting wires to run down the mast, including power. They are solar powered and charged with something other than a battery for storage, so they will last many many years. The other beauty of this, is that you can place the display anywhere and even change it about with no wiring to worry about. Plus, the display displays info from all transducers, wind, depth, speed and so on. This means on or two displays does it all. It's a very very cool system.

[jimbim]

Re: the raymarine

Can't say I understand the distinction. I want to know where the wind is coming from and how fast. Does it matter what sort of propulsion my craft uses? Does it change the information I get? Doubt it.

But I'm not a racer, don't need that edge, and I won't be buying either the ST40 or 60. The telltales on my shrouds tell me more than I need to know and admittedly much that I don't understand.

When they wear out, my niece long ago left a Bony M cassette on the boat. I quite enjoy it, the Rivers of Babylon and all that, but when the time comes it's a year's worth of telltales.

[Firesail]

Wheels,

I have installed the navman set on my boat this year and I love it!
They were easy to install and interface with the chartplotter(Standard Horizon CP160)and autopilot(Simrad WP30). I can't say enough good things about this NZ product.

[Jeff H]

I race on a boat with Tac Tic stuff and it has not proven to be all that reliable and the factory support has not been all that great either. I have Raymarine gear on my present boat which replaced a bunch of earlier (12 plus year old) Raytheon/Autohelm equipment that was fried in a lightning strike. I have also used a lot of older Raymarine equipment on other boats. I have actually been extremely impressed with the durability of the Raymarine stuff. Factory support during installation did not knock my socks off. My limited exposure to Navman has not been very good and I have seen some carping about Navman service in the US.

Jeff

[Jentine]

I have been using Raytheon and currently, Raymarine products for the past 15 years on all my boats. I have purchased a new boat that I will take delivery of on Friday (if the rain ever stops and the wind settles down) and all the instruments are Raymarine. Why? Well, it is simple. Whenever I have had a problem with a Raytheon/Raymarine instrument, the repair/replacement has taken place within several days.
Several years ago, I was visiting with a friend in Bonair. An aquaintance of his was experiencing a major difficulty with his new RADAR. Not having access to a repair facility, he entrusted a local repair shop to fix his ailing RADAR. The technician did not understand the complexity of the boards in the system and destroyed one of the electronic boards. I suggested that he contact Raytheon, which he did. They instructed him to ship it to them which he did. They repaired the RADAR (under warranty) eventhough the board had been destroyed by the errant technician. They returned the unit via prepaid postage along with a check for his postage and charged nothing.
I have had similar experience with them.
Invitation, remember that the repair facility is only a couple of hour drive from your address.

[Alan Wheeler]

That's disapointing to hear about the TacTic stuff Jeff. It looked like a very promising solution.
I have heard nothing but positive feedback from both buyers and sellers of the Navman product. Personaly, I found all their displays the clearest and easiest to read of anything I have yet looked at.
Jentine makes the most important point. No mater what the product, even if it is the best money can buy, if it doesn't have service and backup, it is plain useless. So service and backup becomes the major factor in any purchase.

[By Invitation]

Thanks to everyone for their input on this. You have all been very helpful. I'm looking at the Navman simply for the price and features. I am not worried about access to a technical support as far as working on anything, I just need to be able to get parts for what I want to repair. I never have anyone work on anything I own except myself so that is not an issue.

Thanks

[Jentine]

Service is an important consideration with modern electronics. One method employed by most manufacturers is to sandwich the components and circuits on multi layered boards that are not repairable.

[Pblais]

Jeff,

I jhave a TackTic Wind instrument too. It's been a bit odd too. It cuts out and comes back at odd times. When it's in it works great and I really like it. I got it because i did not want to pull a 52 ft mast and rewire. The cost seemed to justify the not having to pull the mast.

Tha battery power has been better than expected but it seems that the signal is not so great. Thiungs seem to effect it that I can not always explain.

I was sailing across the fat end of the Bayt from Yorktowwn to Cape Charles and at the point I was passing the baltimore Channel two large vessels a tanker and container ship passed and knock the signal out for about 15 minutes.

last fall the wind speed worked a long time but the direction took a vacation.

I wpuld be curious what you have experienced.

[Curtis]

By Invitation,
I bought a bunch of Ramarine stuff last fall. Once you know what you want, I suggest that you shop the internet aggressively to get the lowest price you can find regardless of who is offering it. Then contact a couple of the more well known and reputable retailers to see how close they can come to matching the low-ball prices. I was able to save quite a bit of money and still bought from a reputable dealer.

Regarding the ST40/ST60 debate, make sure that the interface specs on the ST40 will work with your other instruments (i.e. autopilot in vane mode). Seems like they changed the spec but I'm not completely sure.

I'm happy with the ST60...works as advertised.

Curtis