Wind Indicator Solution

How do you fit a wind indicator to a mast that rotates?
Well here is one solution that has worked on the several outings I remembered to plug it in.
I purchased one of those plastic coupling fittings commonly used on life jackets.
Also a dingy wind indicator for about $20AU. Yes we are a land of innovators in Australia.
I cut off the mounting rod leaving the curve in place, cut away the coupling then filled with plastibond. I think that's a brand name but I guess anything that will fill the gap and go hard will do. Ended up with as below.

Next I heated a strip of plastic and bent it to a shape to fit under the sail strap on top of the mast and in the notch on top of the mast. The strip was about 12mm wide and about 1.5mm thick. You can see the edge of the plastic, under the webbing in the following photos. I then put two metal threads through the femal coupling and plastic strip with dome nuts and locktite as below.


Then all I have to remember to do is plug in as below. At least I don't have to take down a fully stayed mast with spreaders, like in my last yacht, when I forget on the TI.

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Cheers, Brian in South Australia
Tandem Island -

Nice and clean, does it work better than a ribbon?

J

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2011 Golden Papaya TI with a 250 square foot spinnaker!
also a more manageable 100 square foot spinny...
&
the TI3 rear ama mod

I like it. Always nice to see alternatives

@kayakman7 - I tried a piece of yarn and found it problematic. Given our masts rotate, the yarn tended to just wrap around the mast when I unfurled the sail.

I also found that you must use a rather short piece or it will get tangled with the batten. I became frustrated with it after one day and gave up

I still like the Davis Spar-fly.



It attaches via an included spring clip that fits perfectly into the web loop at the top of the TI sail. Highly visible, very accurate, easy to install & remove, unaffected by mast rotation.

Nice - I kinda like the looks of the Davis Windex, but I just love that "no fabrication required" mounting

Edit: Bummer - my sail furls higher on the mast than yours. Mine covers at least 3/4 of the web loop where you have the mounting spring.

That's odd. You would think that the sails would be the same. Is your downhaul tight?

Yes, it's at least good and snug. I haven't paid attention to that in the past so I don't know if it always ends up like that.

Just to be safe, I think I am going to work on a mount that slides in like ChangeMan has done.

The Davis Spar-fly looks a lot easier than my clip in solution. Either will enable you to chase the wind as Murphy says it always comes from the direction you want to go.
I had to release the downhaul completely to get the bracket in the notch and around the webbing. Not a real easy task as there is not much room. Would be nice is Hobie sold one that fits easily.

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Cheers, Brian in South Australia
Tandem Island -

I finally ended up using a mast-top ribbon. The Davis spar-fly is built like a Swiss watch with a jeweled bearing. It is extremely sensitive to wind changes. Unfortunately it is also very sensitive to being bumped. I ruined two of them while hauling the TI. If you could store the Davis in its own cushioned travel case you probably would never have a problem. However, I found that just wrapping the Davis in bubble wrap was not good enough. Even a gentle knock can ruin it. So I went back to using a mast ribbon. Yes, it does sometimes wrap onto the mast-sail but I never have to worry about accidentally breaking it.

I ordered a Davis Windex 10 Sport yesterday. The reviews I read state the same problem as TIDALWAVE does referring to the Spar-Fly, "fragility" and frequent breakage. I woke up this morning thinking "How am I going to transport this thing in an already crammed vehicle"? Cancelled the order

I had already ordered the Twist Lock Seat Adapter kit, am getting ready to head up to West Marine to start collecting supplies to run the furling line to the back seat, and have committed to installing an electric motor of some sort so that should keep me busy for awhile. I'll revisit this issue later

Hello Herb,

Three of the members in our sailing group have this set-up and it's been working just fine, check it out: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=35811

Mine has been in use since May and you know that Florida's G-force wind factor is much greater than what you Yankees have up North.

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Sun E Sailor
Ezra Appel
Palm City, Florida
2014 Tandem Island

Hi Ezra,

Your sail is furled lower on the mast than mine also presenting the same problem as with the Spar-Fly. That is in its present state of furling, my sail would be wrapped around the mount. I don't think having my sail wrapped around a thumb screw would be good and certainly wouldn't want it wrapped around the edges of a metal spring clip.

I will be keeping an eye on my furled state in the future to see if it just happened to roll up that way this time, or if it goes that high all of the time.

I have a 2015 TI, and use a Davis Spar Fly with a solution (maybe not the best) that seems to work for:

1) Attaching to the mast end without affecting the furling up of the sail near the top, or permanently altering the mast head.
I used the round metal base mounting option, with all three screws attaching the base to a small wood block.
The small wood block fits over the top of the mast, and only extends about 1 1/4" down the mast head.
I simply hold the wood block over the mast head with one hand, then pull two zip-ties onto the block and mast head with the other.
I "sacrifice" the zip ties each time, using two fresh ties to hold the wood block base to the top of the mast each time.
Both the zip-ties go through notches I chiseled into the edges of the wood, recessed so as not to allow them to slip up or down.
The top zip tie goes around only one of the plastic in the very end of the mast.
The bottom zip goes under the straps holding the sail onto the top of the mast.
When done, I cut both zip-ties (one use only) with a small knife.

2) Carrying the Davis Spar Fly wind vane around without damaging it.
This is a challenge, as at least one person has mentioned.
My solution: carry the Davis Spar Fly upside down in a cardboard box big enough to hold the wind vane (around 18" X 10" deep).
I hang the Davis Spar Fly upside down, with the round metal base and the small wood block extending above the box when closed, and tape it shut on each side with painter's tape, which is easily removed and even reused a few times.
I remove the sail from its cover, then take the wind vane out of its box, and carefully remove it when done.





Admin: Edited to image URLs (was page URLs)

One more try on the images...

why not just a flag? I didnt want to modify the plastic head of the mast so I just taped a very thin aluminium stick to the last 4 inches of mast, the stick is about other 8 inches long over the mast with the flag fixed to it.
when i sail i think that the flag does exactly the same task of the wind indicator.



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