Electronic Wind Instruments

[concerto]

As I refit and outfit my 27 year old Valiant I consider weather or not to install new wind instruments. The old one''s are GONE, but I rarely used them.
Am I missing out on a great piece of gear?
Are they just another electronic toy to maintain?
Eric Ingelman

[yandina]

I''ve been cruising for 13 years with a couple of pieces of wool tied to the shrouds. They indicate wind strength and direction, are easily maintained, and they are up by the sails so you can actually see the angle where you need it, not on an instrument down in the cockpit.

[Jeff_H]

A high quality wind instrument, especially if tied to your knotmeter to produce true wind readings, is a very useful instrument to determine proper sail selection and sail trim. On a boat like the Valiant would also want to be able to tie your wind instruments to your autopilot to permit self-steering relative to the wind.

Telltales on the shrouds do provide a lot of information but used by themselves they are not terribly accurate since they are influenced by turbulence off of the sails and hull and are also affected by gradiant wind affects. Used in concert with a ''windex'' type masthead fly the shroud mounted teltales are useful for eveluating wind sheer.

Jeff

[Vitamin]

Visit my "site" and you will see all my instruments, about half a dozen.
It is a strange issue, you may hate them if you have them and love them if you miss them. As you may understand from my pics, they are great at night when your sences will play tricks on you. The night the pictures were taken (at 8 sec freehand exposure!) it was DARK and we were mesmerized by algie emitting an amazing blue light at any crest, especially around the bow wave.
I have relieved a watch at nights when they swore we had been sourounded by "moouing" wales. Who knows, the point I am trying to make is that a modern set of instruments have a very sobering effect, especially in the dead of night.
On a sunny day with light winds, who cares?