Just thought of another reason to put the wind meter on a small mast on the ww hull: capsizing.

  You can get good waterproof masthead lights that won't mind getting dunked, but that $700 wind sensor isn't going to respond too well if you capsize in rough water and/or at speed.  And most capsizes probably won't happen while moving slowly on flat water.

  Since the wind meter would be on the windward hull, the wind meter should work most of the time.  The only downside would be when sailing aback in really light winds when putting the lw hull to windward may be more efficient.

  That said, there's something elegant about just a single mast, not to mention less drag.

        - Mike

 

  Sounds reasonable.  Higher off the water than the bows, but still under the sail, and unlikely to get washed away by waves.

  I've read some great reviews on the navisafe lights and will be getting one with a pole mount for my dinghy next season.

  As for proa going offshore, I'd also want something higher up to be seen at greater distances and/or above swells.


FIXED MAST

  My ideal setup:

    - Fixed mast with a SoftWing sail and rotating boom.

    - Two tricolor masthead light pucks, to be switched on and off depending upon direction.

    - Capped with a single color masthead anchor light.

    - Along with a masthead wireless TackTick wind meter.

    - Then either:

      a) Two fluxgate compasses, one facing towards each bow, with the leads to the TackTick NMEA interface switched between the two depending upon the direction, or

      b) A single compass on a rotating stock that gets flipped 180 degrees.


  The twin-compass solution has the advantage of being switched remotely, either by a physical switch, by a float/wand that drags in the water, or by a knotmeter hooked up to a powered switch with a few electronics that flips whenever the speed reverses.  The same switch flips the nav lights.  But there are components to fail however you look at it.

  The rotating stock has the advantage of one less component, and the setup is highly unlikely to fail.  You just have to remember to use it.  I suppose there could be an automated warning light -- the worst case is that the light would fail, but the actual compass/light mechanism could be more robust.

  Either setup could also be used with an NMEA-integrated autopilot with tillerpilot mechanism.  Or, for the price, maybe you just get two self-contained tiller pilots.

  The biggest downside so far is trying to estimate the "real" wind speed.  Trying to achieve or surpass wind speed with the boat could get tough with a wind meter up that high.


ROTATING MAST

  That's a tough call.  TackTick has a wireless mast rotation sensor that works well on my catamaran, and should probably work to sense the true wind direction if the NMEA compass were flipped on each shunt.

  But there are not auto-rotators for masthead lights.

  I'd suggest a secondary mast on the ww hull, much narrower and lower, which could be rotated on each shunt.  With the compass and the wind sensor both mounted to the mast (compass below decks), it's probably the least expensive solution, and its gets a more realistic wind speed when one wants to brag.

  However, those nav lights are going to be shielded by the sails at night, so I'm not sure if it's a realistic solution.  The lights on the WW hull canopy might do better.

        - Mike

Rob Denney harryproa@gmail.com [harryproa] wrote, on 11/25/2014 7:35 PM:

 

No problems as long as they are visible all round (ie, the sail does not block them) and they do not blind the helmsman.  I would try them on a dark night on land before drilling any holes.  On top of the ww hull canopy, on top of it might be a better location than the bows.

 I am waiting for a price on these, http://www.navisafe....tricolor-2nm-2/  which look like a pretty good solution, using rechargable batteries.  

rob

On Tue, Nov 25, 2014 at 10:03 PM, squirebug@yahoo.com [harryproa] <harryproa@yahoogroups.com.au> wrote:

 

      

I have been considering using switchable lights on the windward bows of งง.

I think they would be visible from leeward and simpler than a rotating masthead, but lower down.

Any thoughts on the trade-offs?

Best regards
Herb

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