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SailTimer News

Keeping you at the forefront of sailboat navigation.

SailTimer Wind Instrument™
Launch & Photos

In 2012, SailTimer Inc. released the first-ever masthead anemometer that could transmit wind data to smartphones and tablets.  Now, just in time for the holidays and winter boat shows, we are pleased to announce the official launch of the next generation: the SailTimer Wind Instrument™. Wireless and solar-powered, it has been completely redesigned. It now has far fewer components, which reduces the cost.  The retail price in January will be $450, although you can pre-order now direct from the manufacturer at the special discount of $349.99. 

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The photo above shows the advanced design with the electronics right inside the tail of the wind direction arrow.  The tail is encapsulated in solid plastic, to make the device durable and submersible.  The sunlight passes through the clear encapsulation, to the solar panels inside.  This makes the Wind Instrument completely waterproof and submersible.  With its small size and portability, it can be used on sailboats large and small. 

Full details are provided at www.SailTimerWind.com including technical specifications, more product photos of this advanced design, and also now the Owner's Manual. 

Our product line including our previous wireless anemometer have been featured in:

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Designed for Sailboats

Whether you are watching the wind angle, or have software updating your optimal tacks and Tacking Time to Destination as the wind changes, you need accurate wind data. This is the first masthead wind sensor actually designed for sailing. With most anemometers, when the boat heels over, the wind hits them from underneath, causing less accuracy.  The patented wind cups on the new SailTimer Wind Instrument™ are designed to be equally accurate whether the boat is upright or heeling over under sail. 

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   Unique new features

  • Submersible, and UV resistant for the tropical sun.
  • Bluetooth 4.0 (Low Energy) transmissions are very frugal, so the Wind Instrument can generate its own power with solar panels built into the tail of the wind direction arrow. 
  • Easy to install because it is wireless.
  • Transmits in standard NMEA, so works with the SailTimer™ app as well as a variety of third-party apps and marine electronics.
  • Precision wind direction with no dead band.  Many anemometers use a potentiometer for wind direction. These have a transition point sometimes referred to as a “dead band”, where voltage must change from lowest resistance to highest resistance, to start the rotation over again. This new design uses a digital compass, not a potentiometer, to avoid this problem.
  • Amazingly small and lightweight.  The cups are just 2.6 inches wide, and the mounting foot is smaller than a postage stamp.
  • Distinctive vertical orientation. Anemometers usually project horizontally about a foot and a half from the top of a mast, and the plastic wind arrow on there needs about a 1-foot diameter rotation space.  But we use a vertical design to avoid looking like a perch to seagulls. 
  • Digital compass built right into the wind direction arrow.  It works with rotating masts, and does not require calibration.
  • Detachable with standard 1/4" tripod mounting thread, in case you want to attach a camera mount, pistol grip, or tripod.
  • The wind cups catch wind and rotate equally well when tilted. In standard anemometers, the lower part of the blade increasingly obstructs the cup, the more you are heeling. But the blades in the SailTimer Wind Instrument™ respond like a propeller when you are sailing along heeled over.
  • The SailTimer Mini-Server™ is an optional receiver with NMEA 0183 wiring connectors that can also retransmit the wind data to any device with wifi and a web browser. 
  • The electronics are encapsulated in solid plastic.  We made the product design so elegant and clean that the circuit board itself is the tail of the wind direction arrow. There is no sealed case to leak, and no air inside the case to cause condensation on the circuit board.
  • Amazing mounting systems give you several options to raise/lower your Wind Instrument after your boat is in the water, without having to climb or lower the mast.




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Click to open full size

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New Video and Photos
There are new photos on the web site for the SailTimer Wind Instrument™ at www.SailTimerWind.com.  The photos at left and the video clips below also show the unique design with the electronics inside the tail of the wind direction arrow, encapsulated in solid plastic.

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New video clips with tail encapsulated:
   ● Close-up (26 s.)
   ● Swirling wind (1 min.)
   ● Light wind (28 s.)

The new SailTimer Wind Instrument™ is submersible, and designed for sailboats of any age and size, from beachable catamarans to one-design racing dinghies, trailer-sailors, pocket cruisers, and blue-water keelboats.  Big boats can get more advanced tacking results with apps like the SailTimer™ app than in GPS chartplotters. Small centerboard sailboats have never been able to have marine electronics before. But wireless and mobile devices are changing all that.

The special pre-order discount will be gone in January.  So pre-order soon if you want to ensure that even if the initial inventory sells out, there is one of these wireless, solar-powered Wind Instruments coming to you in March.  There is full information on the order page below.

 



 

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