As another Aussie you may want to think outside the square;-)

First as you have already found out stay away from Navman. I used to
install marine electronics as a job and they are just plain junk! Sorry
but that is the truth.

Second, stay away from B&G they are expensive (e.g. a new mast head
unit is about $1300 AUD). Also remember that Kongsberg bought them out
like they did to Navico and over time they sank like a stone. B&G have
great instruments if you are a professional racer with deep pockets!

Third, I don't know how many mast head units we had back at the office
but there were a lot! Bearings frozen, missing cups, vanes broken and
just downright savaged units. Given that land based weather head units
have gone to heated wire, ultrasonics etc with no moving parts it seems
to me that this low maintenance technology is highly appropriate for
the marine application. Yes the motion of the mast head does complicate
things a bit but the software should be able to compensate. There are a
few of these units on the market but widespread adoption does seem to
be limited. The average life of a mechanical head unit is about 3 years
(notice I said average) so replacing such is not an onerous task until
the wiring in the mast goes and then its fun.

Just my 2 cents worth.

On 2007-01-11 04:36:16 +1100, "Gordon Wedman" said:


wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,
We lost our mast (long story), and are having a new one built. We lost
everything except the boom and mainsail.
Our previous wind instrument was a Navman 3150 which we had for a bit
over 3 years. In that time I had three new display units (under
warranty) because the LCD segments went all funny intermittently. This
meant is was unreadable for speed, the direction was OK.

Anyway, I don't want to go through that again, so am after
recommendations for a new unit.

Thanks
paulr
"Meridian of Sydney"

I have had no problems with Autohelm/Raymarine ST50 instruments and
there are lots of replacement parts on eBay for cheap prices. I
imagine the newer ST60 and ST80 instruments are just as good. My
latest boat has Standard Horizon instruments and I noticed they fogged
up in really cold weather. Could not read them. B&G are good but, I
think, expensive and you will not find cheap replacement bits on eBay
as easily.


--
Regards,
John