During the winter I removed the mast from Roma in order to upgrade the rigging, electrical wiring, lights, and to add a wind instrument. Although not a required or essential item for sailing, accurate real time information about wind speed and direction is fairly common on most cruising and racing sailboats.

The latest and greatest wind instruments are wireless, which includes a sending unit or transducer with a solar rechargeable battery attached to the masthead, and a gauge or readout mounted at the boat's helm. Data is transferred and received without a cable connecting the transducer and gauge.

Wireless instruments are fairly expensive at this time, costing well over $1,100, and way over the skipper and Roma's budget. After a great deal of research and shopping I decided on the Clipper Wind Instrument CL-W, which is a British made "wired" electronic unit costing less than $350. The CL-W is very well made, and provides the same data as the far more expensive wireless option.

Since Roma's mast was already lowered and removed from the boat, this was the ideal time to add the wind instrument, which had to be mounted to the mast head with a cable running down the 1" conduit inside the mast. Installation of the "wired" system would be far more difficult if the mast were standing. This is why the wireless systems are so popular even considering the cost. It's far less expensive than having the boat pulled and mast lowered at a boat yard in order to complete the difficult installation process.

I received the Clipper Wind Instrument for my birthday in February and mounted it prior to stepping the mast and launching in May. I didn't have time to complete the wiring and installation of the gauge prior to the Coastal Cup Challenge Race a week after launch. Later in June I finished the project during a weekend trip to the coast. It was very neat seeing the wind speed and direction pop up on the screen for the first time.

The day after the installation was complete I took Roma out for her first sail using the new Clipper Wind Instrument, which required calibration while underway. The wind speed was around 14 MPH at the dock so I opted to leave the big 135% Genoa Jib mounted as the headsail. Normally, I don't fly this sail in wind over 18-20 MPH. Sail options for stronger winds are the 100% Genoa or the 75% storm jib.

As soon as I made it to open water in the sound we were seeing winds well over 20 MPH. I decided to partially unfurl the Genoa Jib since the winds were much stronger than the maximum range of this sail. Within a short period of time the Genoa developed a rip about 4 feet long on the Leech or long backside of the sail. Thanks to the Clipper Wind Instrument I now know that the Genoa blew out with 23 MPH winds. In the past I would have used "fish story logic" and claimed that the blow out occurred during a 35 MPH gale. The reality of technology has eliminated many tall fish tales.

Other than the damaged sail, I was thrilled with the first outing using the Clipper Wind Instrument. With the addition of the Lowrance HDS7 GPS Chartplotter installed last summer I now have detailed information on real time location overlaid on a nautical chart, speed over ground, depth, wind speed and wind direction. Additionally, the HDS7 Chartplotter allows for the addition of radar, engine instruments, and AIS or Automatic Identification System, which is a collision avoidance system that gives information on all the ships in your area, their speed and courses and how to contact them.

In the past sailors used a technique referred to as dead reckoning, which required a seat of the pants knowledge of navigation and skill for sailing. One basic piece of equipment for boats that goes back centuries is the compass, which used to be essential for even the most basic sailing.

Today, modern electronics provide a lot of convenient information for average sailors that was not available just 20 years ago, and the argument for having these instruments is that the degree of safety while boating is greatly increased. However, any good sailor today must still be able to dead reckoning using a compass in case of a failure of one of more of the electronic systems on board. Since I learned sailing "the old way" of dead reckoning, and I'm just adding the modern electronics for peace of mind and added safety I feel comfortable with or without instruments.

Click here for pictures of the wind instrument installation