Dec 19, 2021-B&G Instrument Project-Part II

We said good bye to a long time friend this month and it was sad. I escorted the B&G Hercules instrument system off the premises, in a box, and wished him well.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold How I'll Remember B&G

For nearly 40 years, like a loyal employee, B&G served quietly onboard Wings providing accurate and timely wind and boat speed information. We did have our ups and downs; I had to work hard at times to keep B&G operating smoothly, but I was proud that the teamwork was successful, that we had our forty year old instruments still going! And even though it was 40 years old, B&G gave us information and flexibility that few modern systems could equal. I loved that system.

But there were signs that its time was drawing near. Accuracy was becoming questionable and, some functions were unreliable. I’m sorry to say so but it was clear that it was time for B&G to go.

I brought a replacement system, a newer B&G Hercules system, onboard for a tryout. The old B&G must have seen the handwriting on the wall, retirement in a box? What an ignominious end he faced ; but what could he do? Nothing.

One day at the gym when I knew I was going to go home that day to disconnect B&G for the last time I actually had a tear in my eye. But all good things must end.

Now the newer B&G Hercules 2000 system is in place. The old B&G Hercules 390 is gone.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold New B&G H2000 system in place

Things with the new instruments are not completely smooth, and at times I still miss the old system and wonder if we made the right decision, but we had to move forward.

It wasn’t cheap though either in terms of time or money. The new system came in a couple of boxes filled with used pieces with no guarantees that they would work. I spent about 100 hours testing and installing it all. I still needed quite a few pieces, so I was on Ebay most days.

Some of the software was out of date and though I had the latest versions of it stored on my PC, they have to be burned into Eprom chips and physically installed to be useful. I bought an Eprom burner and learned how to use it.

The mast head unit I built works, but I have doubts about the 40year old cable to it which we still have installed. I may need a new one of those. The performance CPU is not outputting data and even a new Eprom didn’t help it, so I had to find a another one on Ebay and it’s now on the way. Then there is the issue of spares. For the old system we had boxes of spare parts. I now have to find some spares for the new system. Keep in mind that while it is 22 years newer than the one it replaces, it is still an old system, and spare parts are rare.

But in the end we should have a better system at a pretty substantial cost savings. A new B&G Hercules 5000 system would cost over $10,000. We’ve got one a little bit older (but still an improvement over our previous system), at a fraction of that cost.

Now if only it will be as loyal and reliable as old B&G.

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Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz, Mexico

Oct 17, 2021-B&G Instrument Project

wingssail images-fredrick roswold 

B&G Hercules 390: 40 years old

We’ve had these B&G Hercules instruments since we got the boat in 1986. They actually date from 1979, most of them.

We’ve maintained, fixed, upgraded and babied them for 35 years. They still work, but barely, and parts are getting thin.

We’d love to upgrade them to newer model instruments but the cost is prohibitive. 

Then I was given a box of slightly newer B&G Hercules gear which was taken out of a boat which was hit by lightning. They were not working and the owner said, “Replace them all”.

Opening them up I did find burned out circuit boards. 

But I thought they might be repairable so I set them up on the work bench and chart table and began an “bench test’. 

  wingssail images-fredrick roswold 

Bench Testing 

I found most of a complete system could be created out of the box of pieces but a lot of them were trashed. 

One of the most challenging parts was the wind sensor which goes on the top of the mast. It was broken and also, I wanted a newer vertical version (the new part lists for $4600, so that was out!).

It took several tries but finally I had even that wind sensor working and I engineered a vertical spar. 

Hoorah! 

wingssail images-fredrick roswold  Wind Data Works! 

Well, I still have to do some work, including a new mount must be made for the wind unit, and some other parts need to be fabricated to install the stuff, but it looks like we could have newer instruments for a pretty good price (fixer – upper instruments). 

Of course we don’t know if they will really work once they are all installed, or how long they will last, and honestly, I’ve been pretty proud of how long we’ve kept the old ones working, and I'll be sorry to see them go, but I think it’s worth it to try this. 

wingssail images-fredrick roswold  Nikon Down 

 Now if only I could get my trusty Nikon to work again. This month it died after 12 years of hard use. I’ll definitely miss that one. 

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Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mexico