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Refit:  Winter 2008-2009


Winter 2008-2009 Refit | Saturday, January 31, 2009

A couple new options have appeared in the search for wind instruments.  This is good, since things are now approaching the realm of reality for what I need.  I was having trouble justifying the high price of premium instruments like the Raymarine ST60 series (street price around $775) and TackTick T101 wireless wind system (street price around $1200), although both are nice instruments.

Raymarine ST60


TackTick T101

The cheesy Raymarine ST40 instrument (street price around $302), with its ugly and oddly-sized display and the powerboat-type anemometer that screams Wal-Mart-style cheapness, never really entered into serious consideration, despite its low price.  There's just nothing to like about this instrument.



Raymarine ST40

To me, the wind instruments are just a fun, entirely unnecessary diversion, and these systems just seemed like overkill for my purposes--never mind their high price tags.  I originally added Standard Horizon wind instruments in 2004, and enjoyed them for a couple seasons.  However, the apparent wind function began to become erratic and inaccurate one year, followed by the cessation of accurate wind speed information as well.

I lived with the non-functioning wind instruments for 2 or 3 seasons  (despite numerous and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to troubleshoot and repair the problem, whatever the problem is), and the lack of "Boat TV", as we called the display (so dubbed because of the amusement factor of sitting at anchor and watching the wind speeds on gusty days), certainly never affected our sailing.  Still, I hoped to install a new system this winter, rather than continue forward with the inoperable instruments that I had.

Recently, it came to my attention that there were two options of which I'd previously been unaware (both are new products).  One is a less expensive version of the TackTick wireless system, the T033 wind system (street price around $730).   However, this is still a premium system, at least in terms my own cost vs. need basis.



TackTick T033

The other is the Northstar Explorer W310 wind system (street price around $430), which appears to be quite comparable to the Horizon system that I currently in place, both in pricing structure, installation, and display appearance.  It comes with the typical long-arm sailboat anemometer and vane setup, similar to the TackTick ones shown above.

As of this writing, I continue to look into these options, happy to have found at least system that fits more easily into my hopeful budget and, more importantly, into my own feelings of what wind instruments are worth to me.  The final decision is still pending.


Northstar W310

Now for some actual work.  It was time to reinstall the propeller shaft and coupling, since I'd decided not to pull the engine this year; my inspections indicated that there was no pressing need for this, and while this job is still on the list for the near future (likely next winter), my schedule for the coming weeks and months was going to be full enough that I saw no reason to undertake an unnecessary job.

As I'd done twice before, I reinstalled the shaft and couplings using plenty of water proof grease on the mating surfaces and on the bolt threads.  The coupling slipped onto the shaft easily, and the reinstallation was straightforward.


Next, I reinstalled the propeller, again using the waterproof grease on the shaft taper and threads.


With the running gear back in place, I moved on to some other small jobs, including cleaning up the excess sealant around the new access hatch in the cockpit, which I installed a week or so earlier, and cleaned, sanded, and varnished some of the brightwork:  coamings, swash boards, and lazarette hatch.

    

Total time today:  3 hours

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Glissando, Pearson  Triton #381
www.triton381.com 

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