What happened to my Windex?

[wikakaru]

I was out sailing yesterday and I noticed that on certain points of sail the Windex at the top of my mast stopped working. By "stopped working" I mean that it was pointing in a direction other than that from which the wind was blowing. I was confused, since a Windex is basically as dumb as dirt. What can go wrong? At first I thought maybe a spider web or something, but it wasn't stuck solid, and sometimes it worked correctly.

After I got back to the mooring, I took a photo of the mast head from a dock that is about the same height as the mast head. Here's what it looked like:

DSC_3367a.JPG

If you look carefully, you will see that one of the wire guides that is used to indicate "close hauled" is bent up from horizontal so the vane arrow can't swing past it. I can see how a bird landing on it might bend it down, but how did it get bent up? Birds on the Windex have never been a problem for me before because this Windex has a bird spike on top.

Has anyone ever seen this happen before?

Everything was fine the last time I went sailing, so this is a very recent change.

Smooth sailing,

Jim

P.S. No, I did NOT run into a bridge!

[Jim Walsh]

I think a bird flew into it. Could have been a strong wind, mine was bent in a gale once.

[wikakaru]

We had one day recently when a 40 mph (35 knot) gust was recorded, but I'm surprised the Windex would bend with that (relatively) little wind.

I wonder if maybe a large bird like an osprey landed up there, saw it and thought, "my, what a nice stick that would make for my nest" and tried to rip the metal "twig" off the big metal "tree".

[sloopjohnl]

had mine act just the same and when that started one wing was missing. when i removed it from the mast to trailer my Ty home i saw one leg was bent slightly probably from the same time the wing went missing from it. Birds in the marina are always present. there are everything from cormorants to herons to hawks and even a couple bald eagles. so that is what i attributed it to but will never be sure. a piece from a Cocoa Cola can was a replacement for the red wing!!

[John Stone]

I'd like to have one of those. But that's why I don't. I guess I would if it were more robust. Why aren't they built tougher? Cue America's favorite curmudgeon Andy Rooney, "Have you ever wondered....". Seems like they always get bent or busted. I have come to rely on sensing the wind. I mostly get it right. Been confounded a few times and thought it would be nice to have a windex. But then decided looking up at the windex and seeing it spinning around would only confirm what I already know.

[fmueller]

I’ve never been able to keep the Windex arms adjusted between mast down haul outs. Mine are badly miss aligned right now ... no idea how. Im not going to climb the mast just to adjust. Next time the mast comes down (next summer ?) I’m just going to remove the arms but leave the indicator/arrow. I really don’t need the arms. When I sail to windward, I’m sailing off the jib luff and tell tails as well as those trailing off the main. When I’m off wind the windex is useful but just to see the apparent wind against the set of the mainsail.

On three different occasions now I’ve looked up and have been startled to see an osprey perched on my mast head. The first time the bird stayed there for almost ten minutes. All three times were in light air out near Comminicut light at the top of Narragansett Bay. These are powerful birds and I’m pretty sure a wing strike to the windex would be enough to knock those arms out of true or even bend them. Just guessing ... but if you go back thru older posts, ospreys on mastheads are not uncommon.

[wikakaru]

I find the Windex especially helpful when trying to sail in the transition zone just on the edge of running wing-and-wing and broad reaching. If the arms are adjusted correctly it is really easy to tell how much of a course change would cause the sail to collapse. I also find it helpful in very light airs close to land, when there are often significant differences in wind direction between the top of the mast and on the water and the telltales on the sail are of little help because there isn't enough wind to make them move. Otherwise I primarily use the sail telltales and cues from looking at the water and feeling the wind. I suppose that when sailing offshore a Windex is not as useful (I always had electronic wind indicators on my offshore boats so I didn't tend to use a Windex offshore), but on a small boat without electronics sailing in coastal waters and trying to squeeze the last tenth of a knot of speed out of the boat it can be very helpful.

I have lots of photos of ospreys on masts, so I know they like it up there, I've just never seen one on mine.

Here's one on a boat in Boothbay Harbor, Maine:

20150704_174332 IMG_1247.JPG

Here's a pair sharing a masthead in Southwest Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine:

20150904_060403 IMG_4758a.jpg

And here's a pair crammed together. It looks like they've trashed the VHF antenna:

20160520_083247 IMG_8705.JPG

Smooth sailing,

Jim