Navman 3100 Sail Pack

[Eric]

Requesting comments about this package or any Navman instrument. I have a 26
foot sailboat that I use for cruising (60%) and fun racing (40%) equipped
with a Simrad tiller pilot. Thanks in advance.

Navman 3100 Sail Pack Instrument Package with Digital Wind

http://www.dtselectronics.com/product_info.php/products_id/830

I have no affiliation with this or any similar product. Just looking for
opinions with the outlook of a purchase.

Eric

 

[Willem Amels]

Hello Eric,

I have had 3100 wind and several repeaters for some years.
Finally decided to replace the lot by wireless electronics from tacktick,
as the units have suffered from water damage.

The glass window on the 3100 series is very vulnerable and is glued to
plastic casing. It does not take long for a leak to develop. Once you have
had water inside, the units develop all sorts of problems.

Otherwise the visibility of the units is pretty good, and they are easy to
operate.

Willem

 

[[email protected]]

I added the 3100 Sail Pack last year to my J/35, and my experience has
been less than perfect. The instruments were professionally installed
by a large yard on Cape Cod. The depth unit arrived with a problem,
the display only worked 1/2, that is, about 1/2 of the display did not
show any thing. It took some doing for Navman to replace this unit.
After much aggravation, the boatyard had to get another whole Sail
Pack package, and break out the depth display to replace my depth
unit, as Navman said there were no replacement depth units available.
I had a big race the following weekend, so the yard did this to
accommodate me, and worked out the details directly w/Navman. Mid
season last year, the wind display started to read the wind direction
erratically, it was off by as much as 90 degrees, depending on the
point of sail. Compensation was not possible, as the amount of error
changed depending on the wind direction. This was changed out this
winter under warranty.

I also have not been able to get the Autohelm 4000 autopilot to read
the data coming out of the wind instrument, but this may not be a
fault of the Navman unit. (it reads the nav data out of the Garmin
GPS fine, so it will steer to a waypoint, but will not follow the
wind, as it should). I've bought the Brookhouse NMEA mux, so I hope
to solve this problem in the next few weeks.

Another small problem I have, is the buttons on the units tend to get
accidentally changed during racing with bodies and winch handles
flying around. I have the displays on the aft cabin house in the
cockpit, and more than once I've had the depth change. I nearly had a
heart attack when mid-race the depth display read '4'... I was in
deep water, and it turns out it had been inadvertently changed to
fathoms. I've solved this with a strip of white tape over the buttons
but I have ordered a spare set of display covers and plan on cutting
away the portion over the display itself leaving the function buttons
covered.

Otherwise, I love the large displays, and the 3100 repeater is very
useful displaying course & heading data for racing. I hope my
problems are isolated, as I hope to keep this boat and these
instruments for a while...

Drew
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