Nasa Clipper Instruments

[Noelio Abrunhosa]

Hi
i am thinking of fitting new Nasa clipper marine instruments. What is everyones view on these?  i was thinking of a wind speed direction, a depth meter, and a speed log. for a chart plotter i was thinking of a B&G Vulkan 7 fs

Regards

Abby

[Symphony]

The cheapest on the market and there are better instruments from other manufacturers. Practical Boat Owner has just in the last two issues reviewed all the instruments currently on the market, including the NASA.

[tiger79]

Nasa instruments are cheap and, in my view, rather nasty.  The wind transducer in particular is poorly engineered and has a reputation for breaking.  Buyers say that Nasa has good aftersales service, but it shouldn't really be needed - and it doesn't include going up the mast to retrieve the broken kit and then going up the mast a second time to replace the repaired kit.  Unless you like the view from the top of your mast, I'd suggest choosing another make!

[JEN-et-ROSS]

In defence of NASA Marine, about 10 years ago a friend and neighbour of ours (He's also a Yachtmaster Instructor) sailed his 27ft yacht from the West Coast of Scotland to The Azores and back kitted out with NASA instruments. The same instruments are still serviceable and onboard today.
 Not a bad performance for any make of kit.

[Salty]

In defence of NASA Marine, about 10 years ago a friend and neighbour of ours (He's also a Yachtmaster Instructor) sailed his 27ft yacht from the West Coast of Scotland to The Azores and back kitted out with NASA instruments. The same instruments are still serviceable and onboard today.
 Not a bad performance for any make of kit.

Quite agree.
My previous boat had NASA instruments, installed either by the previous owner or one of his predecessors. They worked fine during my further four years, with only the wind cups on the anemometer needing to be changed. The cups were readily available and easy enough to change. Compared with the Raymarine instruments on my present boat, I'd say that the NASA ones were more reliable as I've had a complete new Raymarine mast head system twice, a new cable from the mast head to the cabin and from there on to the display unit, and it's now been out of order for more than a year where I'm baulking at the high cost of replacing again what has essentially been a rather unreliable wind instrument. The speed log works and so too does a composite instrument which gives a read out from each of the other instruments. Someone recently mentioned in a posting elsewhere on the forum that Raymarines new American owners have stopped supporting legacy instruments, but I've not yet heard any similar comment in regard to NASA, so for what it's worth, if NASA floats your boat then go for it.

[MarkTheBike]

Someone recently mentioned in a posting elsewhere on the forum that Raymarines new American owners have stopped supporting legacy instruments, but I've not yet heard any similar comment in regard to NASA, so for what it's worth, if NASA floats your boat then go for it.

Yep, mentioned in the post about trying to get my Windyometer working again. Raymarine don't touch ST60 kit any more but will look at ST60+ or later (as of 2016 but I suspect they'll drop ST60+ sooner rather than later). Nigel kindly offered to fix mine and did so very successfully. However, my speedo is still flakey so I don't think the extra bucks for a Raymarine setup necessarily translate into better quality. I'd be inclined to go for the NASA stuff if it's a decent saving.

[Noelio Abrunhosa]

hi

As my boat is in really poor condition and needs lots of money spent in , i am considering the option of a Nasa for wind speed direction, speed log and depth, and a b&g  for the chart ploter. the B&G is a nema 2000 networkable. my thought is if these instruments last two seasons, i will upgrade then when i am under not so much pressure to get all systems up to standard. i spoke yesterday to cactus navigation and i expressed my concerns for nasa instruments, and he says the week point used to be the wind unit on top of the mast. the gauge it self never gives problems. however they have beefed up the mast unit and its  a lot more reliable. and at £300 for all three instruments, its not the end of the world to replace it a few years time.

[Salty]

That sounds like a good plan to me Abby, all three instruments for less than the price of one Raymarine, can't be bad !!
However, if you want the network to talk to your chart plotter, you will need to get a device for converting NMEA0183 to NMEA2000. Actisense make such a device, it costs somewhere near £140, but it has to be configured by the buyer, and I didn't find it easy to configure the one I bought. Part of the problem was in trying to understand the information supplied with the device which seemed to me to have been written by a techie for a techie, not for a non techie old salt. In the end I sent it back and asked Actisense to do the configuring which they did and it has worked, though occasionally it doesn't, and I don't know why. I wish you good luck if you go down that route.