• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Add a Mast Head Wind Speed and Direction Sensor on a E38

sailorjdh

Member I
My local boat yard is advising me that it would likely be necessary to remove the mast to place a wind indicator at the mast head of my E38.
Is this necessary or can the wiring just be dropped down inside and through from above?
Thanks Jeff Hart
 

windjunkee

Member III
I added new B&G sensors, including wind. I had the sensors installed with the mast up. I also installed a new VHF antenna, including new coax, and broke the old coax before pulling the new cable through the mast. It was a hassle to feed the new wires/cable through the mast, but it can be done by a novice (i.e. me) without dropping the mast.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32 Hulll #134
Redondo Beach, CA
 

chtaylor

Member II
Have you thought about the wireless Tick Tack system? I have seen them advertised at West marine among others.

I have no personal experience with them, but have thought about buying a wind direction and speed indicator someday.

Charles
 

u079721

Contributing Partner
My local boat yard is advising me that it would likely be necessary to remove the mast to place a wind indicator at the mast head of my E38.
Is this necessary or can the wiring just be dropped down inside and through from above?
Thanks Jeff Hart


If this is possible it won't be easy. On our 1989 E38 some of the wires exited the mast out the side through an opening that was mostly covered up by the mast partners, while the coax exited the mast out the bottom, then through the mast plate and into the bilge. If yours is the same you probably want to use the side exit and run the wires through the overhead aft to the cockpit.

It could be possible IF you can get enough access to that side opening with the mast in place to imagine running a hook or magnet of some type through the hole to snag the new wire or a messenger line as it comes down. As I said on ours this would not have worked, but yours might be better. If you are still game to try I would first go aloft with a short length of bicycle chain on the end of a messenger line and run it down the mast while someone else waits below with a hook or a magnet to snag it. If you can't get that done, then you are toast - but if it works you are then good to go.

The problem here is that you won't then be using the wire conduit that is fixed to the side of the mast, and the wire will be just hanging loose inside the mast to flop around and get snagged on things. With the mast down I used the masthead coax as a messenger to run my masthead unit's wires back up inside that conduit to avoid these issues. But I had the luxury of having the mast down each fall to do the work.

Good luck with whatever you try.
 

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
A friend has a Tacktick on his Catalina 30. It works well and there were no wires to run. Both the masthead and display units are solar powered on the "entry level" model.

We just sailed his boat from Santa Cruz to San Diego and the Tacktick worked through the night. There is no backlight for the display on the all solar powered unit so we would use the anchor light which powered up the masthead sending unit and a small red clip on led by the display.
 
Top