Swallow Yachts Forum > Technical

Wind indicator

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Guy Rossey:
Hi, I introduce myself being another lucky owner of a BR ( # 48) since last June. Unless mistaken and as far as I can tell from the pics on this forum, I haven't seen wind indicators installed on the BR's. Is there a reason for this apart from the fact it could only be fitted on top of the mast and not of the main sail- after all windvanes in the shrouds are not higher- ?  I was used to sail with it on my previous keelboat and lack it here somehow. Has anyone experience of its use ? Thanks.
Guy
BR Catchando Bay

Julian Swindell:
You could fit a simple burgee to the top of the yard and it would stick straight up into the clear wind when the sail was raised. Presumably you could fit a more sophisticated indicator in the same way, but it would be easy to damage it when raising or lowering the sail.

Craic:
Hi Guy,
been there, done that: http://www.swallowboats.co.uk/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,52/expv,0/topic,258.0
Plus, stick-on wind indicators on the jib, main and mizzen sail.

Anthony Huggett:
Quite often on yachts you see a wind indicator or instrument head mounted forward of the top of the mast. If you want something like a windex to indicate the tacking angles, rather than a simple burgee, I guess you could put one jutting out above the forestay on the main mast on a BR, thought it wouldn't be much use on a run or broad reach (not that you'd run if you could avoid it given the assymetric on a BR.

I'm some way from being able to try this out on my BR 17, so I'd also be interested in any shared experiences.

Craic:

--- Quote from: Julian Swindell on 07 Feb 2011, 12:59 ---You could fit a simple burgee to the top of the yard and it would stick straight up into the clear wind when the sail was raised. Presumably you could fit a more sophisticated indicator in the same way, but it would be easy to damage it when raising or lowering the sail.

--- End quote ---

Julian is right there, in practice it has proved troublesome to have a delicate wind indicator atop the topmast. So we have the indicator -in the form of a swivelled long pennant- atop the mizzen mast mostly, for general information, and then watch the stick-on telltales in the sails for the fine tuning.
If you have mounted your indicator on a long wooden stick as proposed you can change position between topmast and mizzen mast anytime.

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