tacktic

[crwber]

hi

has anyone out there used the tacktic systems for cruising...amy feedback much appreciated

rob

[Pblais]

I have just the wind instrument and non of the other parts. The company support is pretty good. I did have problems with my first one but the second one has been great. I'm coming up on 2 years now. The warranty is 2 full years.

They install easy and there is nothing what so ever you can service. Putting all the parts togetjher and turning each on in setup mode configures them as part of the network. You are then ready to install them.

They are not cheap but the install is pretty basic with cables to run except power to the through hulls if you use the depth and speed sensors. You use two bolts to attach a plate to the mast head, then attach the wind feathers assemply to that with two SS bolts.

The solar power part of it is pretty amazing. You are supposed to be able to run in the dak for three days straight. Under sail I keep the display at the helm under the bimini, so it does not get much for direct sun. I store it in a spot so it faces south ou a port in the saloon so it has sun light any time I'm not around. It's never not been at a 100% charge except for when I first took it out of the box. You can also hard wire them to a fix mounting and use 12 volts too, such as a below deck display. You can add as many displays as you can afford . Each unit is 100% sealed and I don't think you could open one without breaking it.

It is nice to take the wind display down below deck and be able to check wind speed in the middle of the night from the bunk.

I have not found any downsides except they could get zapped by lightning or at least the masthead sensor could. The effort you save on installation might be worth the extra money though a depth / speed log would still need a through hull with 12 volts of power. The full intergration of all the parts makes for some nice data displays. I may add the NEMA interface to genrate some of the extra goodies I can't get now. It would let me connect my GPS and allow it to compute true wind and other info on the same display.

[shanft]

After three years I have all of the Tacktic instruments. The first instrument that I installed was the wind speed and direction indicator. The old unit no longer worked. There was a problem with leaks where the wire goes thru the cabin trunk.

The wind indicator is easy to attach with two screws. I was able to remove 12-strand wire bundle from the mast and fill the hole thru the deck. I was also able to remove the Windex from the mast because the Tacktic unit is quite visible. The Tacktic wind disply/control unit replaces three very large instruments that blocked visibility forward thru the windscreen of my Nauticat 35 motorsailer. When the speedo and depth sounder quit working them I also replaced them with Tacktic units. When the light in my electric compass quit I also replaced it with a Tacktic unit.

Any of the Tacktic display units can display any information. If the captain is taking a nap with the 1st mate in control all information is at hand. I also have an aft steering station. The Tacktic instruments can be unclipped and easily moved to the aft steering station. I also keep a display unit at my navigation station so that I can see the Lat/Lon when plotting positions. It is too far to see the small numbers on the GPS from the nav station.