Last Friday we were all prepared to go sailing with four guests. It was a beautiful day. Just breezy enough, sunny with low humidity. George had gone to the boat to get everything set up. After we all boarded, one of the last things to do was turn on the navigation system. I turned it on at the control panel. The system powered up but had no data readings. No GPS, no depth, no wind readings. We turned it off and on several times with the same results. George and I pulled out manuals, opened up electrical panels and tried to figure it out. I thought it was probably a blown fuse but they all looked okay. After about 1/2 hour I came back up into the cockpit and joined the others. One of our guests went into the cabin to try to help. I eventually got the food out for lunch, so instead of sailing and anchoring for lunch, we ate at the dock. George and I were disappointed but our guests were really good sports about it. After a few hours everyone but George gave up and came home. George talked to three separate technicians at Simrad. The first wasn't the least bit helpful. The second was more helpful and the third was even more helpful. After working on it for hours he determined that there is something wrong with the masthead unit. That is a device at the top of the mast that measures wind direction and speed. For some reason, when it was connected to the system, other things shut down. Since it is a new boat it should be under warranty so we are going to get a Simrad dealer to take a look at it. Our local Simrad dealer is booked for three weeks. In the meantime we can keep the masthead disconnected from the system and sail without the wind data.
We don't have any idea why we are having this problem but George noticed that several others on a Hanse forum are having problems with their units.
Posted with Blogsy
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