Wind Instruments

[coloradoblue]

Bought a Simrad IS15 wind system in 2006 and thus far I have gone through 2 mast head transducers. At $450 each, I need to make a decision whether to fix it again or by a Raymarine ST-60 unit ($850). Anyone with similar experience Simrad? Other then cost , anoth big issue is that it will take me 30 minutes to replace Simrad mast head unit and 4-5 hours to install a new system. In addition, reliability is another key issue. . Any input??

[Pblais]

Bought a Simrad IS15 wind system in 2006 and thus far I have gone through 2 mast head transducers.

Any idea why? Lightning is pretty much fatal no matter who makes it.

[H/V Vega]

We have had Raymarine gidgets on Vega for years now and are even still using some of the old Autohelm stuff that was on the boat when I got it. They match with the system perfectly by the way. All I can say is shop around there are a lot of different prices quoted for the same equipment and prices are falling fast in some countries. I just bought a bit of kit in the US and got one great deal on it. What I did was take the companye best offer and counter offered at a good discount on that, They took the offer. Also there are a lot of used Raymarine bits around if you ask tje repair stations.

[Heikki]

A Autohelm/Raymarie ST-50 transduser was istalled to our mast head on 1996 when the boat was launched by the previous owners. Last September, I finally had to take it down for its first service - the bearings were out. I think that is pretty reliable.

There are mechanical bearings, however, the wind data is collected through Hall-sensors, so it is only the bearings than can wear out. Nothing else to be fixed. The cost was a little bit less than €100 (about $125) here including shipping the transducer back and forth. $10 per year to keep it up and running. Not bad. Unless your problems are due to lighting, I sure would vote for Raymarine on this one.

[nautical62]

When it comes to reliability, I've noticed many cruisers have have broken electronic mast top systems. They are just too hard to access and fix while cruising for most cruisers to even attempt. For that reason i've moved to a hand held wind gauge and use either mast top windex or anything else the points into the wind along with the ships compass to determine wind direction. I' costs a fraction of what has been mentioned here, one never needs to go up the mast and there are no wires to clank around.

[S/V Elusive]

Nautical62 - good point except for those of us who either log that sort of thing, or use the autopilot to steer by wind angle. So, for sure, reliability is VERY important. There is an ST-50 unit at my mast head - has been there at least 9 years. It just recently only started indicating a single direction - but wind speed is good. Aloft I must go.

PS - I've moved this discussion to the proper forum.

[Pete the Cat]

For those of you having trouble with masthead transducers, a Raymarine tech said you could simply remove the tiny allen screw that holds on the rotating ups on, clean the shaft, and spray with WD-40 for those that are stuck or slow. I have a unit that has been working for 15 years and was a bit slow. Cleaning and spraying worked. I would not assume the bearings are bad.

[H/V Vega]

Before you climb the pole check all the connections. I have had the same type of problem with faulty readings several times and always it was a bad or corroded connection somewhere.