Finally, a wind instrument that will work with a Mac!

[bobbob]

Just curious - how would that work? Your autopilot would steer into an optimal heading for a fixed sail setting, not caring about hitting a particular destination? Or you would only let it adjust within a narrow band?

[Ixneigh]

My boat will sail itself long enough for me to fall asleep in the cockpit

[mastreb]

Just curious - how would that work? Your autopilot would steer into an optimal heading for a fixed sail setting, not caring about hitting a particular destination? Or you would only let it adjust within a narrow band?

Yep, you set the autopilot to "steer to wind", which makes sure that the boat changes course with the wind so the wind heading is always consistent and you don't have to trim. It's fantastic for making the best speed when you don't care much about course, which is how BOAT and I do a lot of our offshore sailing--no particular destination, wide open ocean.

Its also good on long passages when you've got time to course correct to a destination at the wind. Let's you relax without trimming constantly.

[Neo]

I've bitten the bullet and ordered my SailTimer Anemometer. With delivery in Jan 2016 it'll be the Admiral's Xmas present, to me

I've ordered it despite the fact that their SailTimer App doesn't support Australian Charts yet....
"Unfortunately, the Australian government does not release digital versions of its paper (raster) charts, although New Zealand, England, USA, Canada etc. all do. On iOS, there is no rendering engine available for the (vector) format that Australiia uses, so we need to build one. Hopefully we’ll have a display method in place in 2016."

I like the very good technical support and the innovative thinking... Check this out ... Crowd-Sourced Wind Maps
http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=3b3 ... 100b768e0c


All the best
Neo

[BOAT]

Good job neo, thanks for being the test case - if all goes well I think I may be following you. Thanks for the tip on this thing mastreb, if it works out it's going to be an answer to a problem that has vexed us for a long time.

In regards so sailing on the wind - back in the old days we had wind vanes that were mechanically connected to our rudders or to a secondary rudder that would steer the boat pretty good if the wind was not too light. they worked well if you were going 50 miles or more in open water because there was about a three mile variance back and forth for every 100 miles you traveled so you would never use it to plot a destination, only to hold an approximate course. As the wind changed you would make corrections to the vane position using the compass as a guide. Then you would plot every 50 to 100 miles to get a new compass heading and do it all over again. Using the wind vane a person could go below and sleep for three or five hours if the weather was good.

With these new fangled electronic things you can sleep all night!! I would like to join the multitude of boaters that migrate south to Mexico every winter when I retire soon so I need to get 'boat' prepared for some of the long legs that are not going to be practical on the trailer.

[mastreb]

Once you get used to setting your trim, putting the autopilot on "Weathervane" mode so it keeps the wind direction current, and then just kicking back as the very steady winds here in So Cal move you along with no attention whatsoever, you get pretty lazy I must say.

Last time I went Dana Point to Newport the boat needed no attention for the entire trip, pointing, and only had to correct about three miles from Newport harbor.

Bliss.

[BOAT]

Nice, that's the kind of sailing i am more accustomed to.

[1st Sail]

$349 Black Friday sale thru Nov 30th. I wish I could tie this to my chart plotter. But to have wind data, direction, and speed on my cell or tablet sans NEMA 2000 network is still a cheap start.
I may just make the jump.

[Tomfoolery]

I use the wet finger in the air for the most part.

Funny you should say that, as it's what pops into my head every time I see that thread title.



And for the record, my wind instrument is a Windex with the tack indicators broken off, and some yarn on the sails. And a dry finger - I'm not invested enough to get that lake water in my mouth through finger-wetting.

[BOAT]

40 years of playing the guitar have ruined my fingers so I can't feel a thing without the wet part. That's sort of why I want a wind indicator - on my old boat I could touch the water but the free-board on 'boat' is way way too high for me to get my finger wet. My finger is getting less and less reliable as I get older too. But for sailing 22 miles up to Dana Point and back my finger works just great but I'm looking for something that is way more accurate so I can set a tack and walk away for a couple hours.

I'm thinking I will probably buy this instrument. I just wish I had a review to read here on the site -

*** UPDATE *** So far all the blogs I have found by people that have actually used this device are not too good yet. The main complaint is that the item can't transmit from the top of the mast without loosing it's signal repeatedly. They say all the marketing images and vids show the item mounted low on a dock close to the receiver.

STILL NEED TO GET MORE DATA ON THIS.

[Neo]

*** UPDATE *** So far all the blogs I have found by people that have actually used this device are not too good yet. The main complaint is that the item can't transmit from the top of the mast without loosing it's signal repeatedly. They say all the marketing images and vids show the item mounted low on a dock close to the receiver.

STILL NEED TO GET MORE DATA ON THIS.

Thank for posting this. Radio is my thing so I took this up with SailTimer, making a antenna suggestion but they are one step ahead of me ... which is good to know

You’ll see on SailTimerWind.com that there are two versions: the Small-Boat version (for masts up to 20 feet/6 m) and the 2016 version for keelboats and tall masts. Yes, the 2016 version has a different antenna arrangement with a longer transmission distance.

That is an interesting link to the antenna article — thanks for sending. It would be tricky (impossible) to do something like this with the Wind Instrument though, because of the molding of the electronics in the tail. But it is not necessary anyways, as you’ll see. You won’t have any problems with a 10m mast.
Bluetooth 4 transmission specs from Wikipedia attached below. We don’t achieve the full distance, but this gives you an idea of what is possible.

Regards,
SailTimer Inc.
http://www.SailTimerWind.com

[BOAT]

Hi neo! I got your message,

Here are the blogs I have found so far on the wind instrument:


http://forums.sailboatowners.com/index. ... ne.151875/


http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.ph ... Instrument


http://www.panbo.com/archives/2012/12/s ... _vane.html

I will post more as I find them.

[Neo]

Hi Gents,

I wish I had great things to say about the SailTimer but I've STILL not taken delivery of my unit.
The manufacture used to be very responsive but he loner responds to to direct emails. Instead he just sends out very infrequent (general and vague) delivery updates without apology. This is very disappointing and after 5 months is becoming somewhat frustrating

All the best.
Neo

[Spentit]

I ordered mine February 2 2016, it's now September so 6 Months later and I still don't know when mine will arrive. I don't know what kind of business they are running, it's certainly not very efficient and does little to keep customers happy. I think I will be asking for a refund..

[Neo]

I have mine now but I complete agree with you. This guy is a brilliant engineer but his arrogant customer service skills one of the worst I've ever come across.
My unit seems to work well but not fully tested on the water yet .... The software server application is very basic but integrates well with third party apps that support SailTimer.

Hope you get your unit soon.

All the best.
Neo