A Do-it-Yourself Wind Sensor

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For more than 20 years, I always had bow-mounted vanes-a Telo Cat on my beach cat and a Windex sport on my Stiletto 27. The Telo Cat was sheltered under the forestay bridle and bowsprit and was never damaged. The long bows of the Stiletto kept the Windex out of harm’s way-although the Stiletto had a spinnaker, it reached faster than the wind and we always tacked downwind, jibing the chute inside like a jib and keeping the sail and sheets away from the bows. When I moved on to a PDQ32 catamaran, a cruising cat with a chute that is jibed outside, there was no place where either a sail or sheet couldn’t pulverize the vane in short order. I learned this the hard way, crumpling several commercial vanes. The solution was not to build something strong, but rather to build something that could flex with the assault and pop back up; a flexible wand topped with a length of yarn.

A Do-it-Yourself Wind Sensor
Shroud mounts help with big shifts at the surface, especially downwind

Mine is made from a few lengths of fiberglass tent pole from a child’s backyard tent and 3 inches of polyethylene airline tubing for pneumatic tools, although surely there are many possible variations. The basic elements are a short length of pole that can be clamped to a bow rail, a hinge created with a few inches of stiff but flexible tubing, and an 8- to 12-inch wand that can be knocked flat, only to pop up again. The yarn (wool or wool/acrylic blend) and cable ties are replaced annually, and the tubing every five years, as needed.

A Do-it-Yourself Wind Sensor
This bow mount is robust, durable, and easy to see

The do-it-yourself wind indicator has proven indestructible, having been flattened by the chute thousands of times during five years of cruising. It is not perfect. It is not as responsive or sensitive as the mini-vanes, it is harder to gauge the wind direction because of the droop, and the yarn can become wrapped around the vane (threading the yarn through the center of the wand, rather than attaching it with cable ties helps).

Drew Frye is a longtime PS tester and the author of Circumnavigating the Delmarva Peninsula. The book is available through his website, www.sail-delmarva.blogspot.com, where he blogs about his sailing equipment research and adventures on the Chesapeake.

A Do-it-Yourself Wind Sensor
Top, appendages for judging wind angles are best for masthead mounts. The middle and bottom handhelds are suitable to measure sustained wind direction when coupled with a hand-bearing compass
Drew Frye
Drew Frye, Practical Sailor’s technical editor, has used his background in chemistry and engineering to help guide Practical Sailor toward some of the most important topics covered during the past 10 years. His in-depth reporting on everything from anchors to safety tethers to fuel additives have netted multiple awards from Boating Writers International. With more than three decades of experience as a refinery engineer and a sailor, he has a knack for discovering money-saving “home-brew” products or “hacks” that make boating affordable for almost anyone. He has conducted dozens of tests for Practical Sailor and published over 200 articles on sailing equipment. His rigorous testing has prompted the improvement and introduction of several marine products that might not exist without his input. His book “Rigging Modern Anchors” has won wide praise for introducing the use of modern materials and novel techniques to solve an array of anchoring challenges.