Chop and Change
13 April 2017 | (Library pic. It really was tipping with rain)
Back in the Caribbean a year ago in January our Raymarine wind instrument failed. Or more likely I thought, it was the masthead transducer. Again.
Dave and Linda kindly schlepped a new one all the way to Panama from L.A. A quick flash up the mast and we were back in business.....for a few months.
Thereafter, on the morning Net our wind reports were of the "look oot the windae " variety rather than digital. Other than the $450 down the tube it wasn't too much of an issue other than we lost our steer-to-wind functionality which is quite useful for avoiding crash gybes while I'm doing the pole dance on deck.
Consequently getting the Wind fixed was on our "To Do" list...under "Critical" although it really wasn't and should have been on the "Do Next" list ahead of the "Nice-to-Have" list.
The big question was, where's the problem? Was it the new transducer that was bust, the wiring down the mast, the wiring through the boat or the 17 year old display or combination of issues?
First off, as the schlepped L.A. transducer was just over a year old, the previous one from 2011 having predictably expired 1 year after the end of its miserable 3 year warranty we thought it likely the old display was the problem. So, we spent the cost of a new small car on a new display and....it didn't work.
Maybe it was the dodgy wiring. All checked and metered but all looked OK so took out the new display and put the old back in. The local Raymarine guy was kind enough to lend us a new transducer to see what worked with that. So, up the mast we went, changed the whirly and bingo, it worked.....until morning. So, in the cockpit we ran a shortcut and put the new display on the new transducer and bingo, it worked...as did the old display. So, to test again, back up the mast to test old whirly with new and old displays and, both mysteriously worked. As I wasn't going to spend the cost of another small car on a new whirly I shot up the mast (well, huffed and puffed) and changed back to the old whirly.
Next morning, nothing worked.
It has to be the wiring.
Floorboards up, old connections all chopped off and re-made and bingo, the old whirly and old display worked.
Maybe I could get my money back on the small car value.
Worked till morning that is. Maybe it was the whirly after all. Back up the mast...... and on it went 'till I finally gave up and decided we'd just look oot the windae.
Then the engineer called to ask if he could have his new whirly back. Which got me thinking.
Did I ever check the new whirly from the masthead as opposed to just in the cockpit with the new display? I'd done so many variants that, despite having written down a matrix of all the permutations I wasn't 100% sure I'd checked the new whirly with the new connections to the new display. The Ferrari scenario.
Back up the mast, in the rain and finally, so far, it's all working. Until morning????
Should just have bought a Ferrari.