MacGregorSailors.com

It's been awhile since this thread has had any action - does anyone have any current reviews? My dad just came across the sailtimer wind instrument and sent me a link last night. The company is still running a pre-order special price of $350 but the site claims pricing will increase to about $500 after the holidays when they no longer take pre-orders and they have product in hand, ready to ship.
I don't feel this is an absolutely necessary item for my 26d but it looks cool and seems like a good value when compared to other instruments with similar function. If the function and this thing is legit, getting in while the price is low seems prudent

I have a friend that has one on his 23 foot trailer sailor and swears by how good it is, he ordered direct through the web site and it took a while to come but as far as being a good wind instrument he loves it

Granted I have not been out on the water much this year but I have not once had the instrument working, on the water, at the top of the mast, to date.
1. Sailtimer have introduced an Airgap Axle for the wind cups. This is a "must-have" because original axle would tick,tick,tick when lubrication ran dry. That tiny vibration is enough to upset the wind direction sensor and the wind direction indicator go's nuts.

2. On my last day out, with the instrument at the top of the mast, I could not get Bluetooth to connect for the whole day but it worked great the next day .... I suspect it was because the signal was weak (30ft away ) and a friend on board had his bluetooth switch on (on his mobile). But I've not been able to confirm my suspicions yet.

IMO the API software is flaky but it does work... eventually
Also, I'm using Android, IOS support seems better but I've not test that for myself.

There has be no developments in the instrument for quite some time, while they (he) focused on the NMEA Server box.

I bought my Instrument a year ago (have had it 7 month) but I've never seen the price above $350.
Hope all this helps?

All the best.
Neo

What about one of these? I have one at the house, and it works great!

http://www.costco.com/AcuRite-Pro-5-in- ... 91909.html

azav8tor wrote:What about one of these? I have one at the house, and it works great!

http://www.costco.com/AcuRite-Pro-5-in- ... 91909.html

What about it, it is a weather station not a sailing instrument would not have NMEA, would not interface with Autopliot and Navigation gear. If all you want is a wind gauge get a cheap handheld anemometer

Or a piece of yarn on a shroud

I guess more the question is that the weather station basically has all the same technology as the wind instrument and more, except the formatting of the output to be NEMA compatible, so why is it 10% of the price, ahhh yeah, the wind instrument is for a sail boat so inflating the price by 5 or 6 hundred % is acceptable.

Many of these companies have been getting away with selling us old and basic technology for years, but the sale price has not been reduced to take into account that the development costs have been paid for many of millions of times over.

Imagine if it was a computer and they were still trying to sell you a 286 or 386 for $1000, you would say they ripping you off REALLY badly.

There is no reason for this basic old technology to be so expensive except to make the manufacturers massive profits.

A typical example, a touch screen GPS for your car costs about $120 complete with maps, a Chart plotter is around $800 or $1000 if you want maps. Im not sure how the technology differs so much to make that much difference

Spot-on Mike.... what's also surprising is the Chinese manufacturers don't just replicate the Raymarine (and others) gear and sell it them for half the price .... Maybe the market's too small for them?

At least SailTimer are doing what they can to change things .... I have to give them credit (and top marks) for that

A typical example, a touch screen GPS for your car costs about $120 complete with maps, a Chart plotter is around $800 or $1000 if you want maps. Im not sure how the technology differs so much to make that much difference
sailboatmike

I agree in part with what you say, I mean as computer tech I laughed when I first started setting up my navigation instruments, dead tech being used all round NMEA 0183 basically old serial bus and the brand new NMEA 2000 basically CAN bus based on old coaxial networking technology from 30 years ago.

But a chartplotter is a lot different from a basic GPS for a car, it's value is in it's software for managing autopilots etc. and taking input from other various instruments such as gyrocompasses, wind etc. not the hardware. This is where economy of scale comes in. Just about every household in the developed world has 2 cars how many boats do they have

Imagine if it was a computer and they were still trying to sell you a 286 or 386 for $1000, you would say they ripping you off REALLY badly.

Yes but have you every priced software for your old computer.. Like Adobe Photoshop

Things are changing slowly the reason Car GPSs are so cheap is there is a lot of open source software out there that has caused the price to drop. In the boating world not so much and what there is is not easily ported over to current hardware. But with things like OPENCPN and others and smartphones and tablets things are going to change just slowly

Remember the price of TomToms when they first came out in 2004 Near on $1500 and they were considered cheap. Before that you had to buy a Windows CE compatible device and pay a monthly subscription fee to the navigation provider.

kadet wrote:.... as computer tech I laughed when I first started setting up my navigation instruments

I should have guessed ... That makes two of us

Some valid points above Kadet but to some extent still think the marine equipment manufactures take advantage of a ignorant market that fear change/unreliability from new technology.

For SailTimer the US market alone is huge (for a small company) .... well at least until Raymarine buy them out

For SailTimer the US market alone is huge (for a small company)

Remember their instrument is only the transducer, nothing else you supply the smartphone/tablet and if you want it on your navigation network a server too. It is a bit cheaper than a Raymarine wind transducer but more expensive than a NASA/Clipper one so when you compare apples with apples it is not so great a deal.

Does the Clipper work on a rotating Mast? .... It's wired, bulky and ugly. Would hate to have that at the top of my mast

Neo wrote:Does the Clipper work on a rotating Mast? .... It's wired, bulky and ugly. Would hate to have that at the top of my mast

No it would have to be adapted to work with a rotating mast like most others.
And the sailtimer is a thing of beauty?



And the Clipper comes in wireless as well along with a wired NMEA interface.

I'm all about this one from Pegasus....they work awesome and are made locally by a good buddy of mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzTOjitUkyg

And they're made for the Mac M in mind.

JT

dive4it wrote:I'm all about this one from Pegasus....they work awesome and are made locally by a good buddy of mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzTOjitUkyg

And they're made for the Mac M in mind.

JT

I agree, a great product - I would buy one today if they had another choice for the wind transducer - I would like something I can leave on the mast when i trailer the boat - something like an ultrasonic wind sensor - I just can't get to the top of the mast on the trailer without carrying around a huge ladder.

I would be interested to hear if highlander is happy with his ultrasonic transducer - (I don't know what he uses for the instrumentation) - but I think I noticed an maritron transducer on his boat - I could be mistaken.

I just upgraded from low-tech . . .



. . . to medium tech.



(just couldn't help myself)