A couple of months ago I bought a new TI (my first Hobie) and I tried to order the Hobie wind indicator which clamps to the top of the mast, but no one had it in stock.
I came up with something which works great and thought I’d pass it along. The attached photos, if they work, will help visualize what I did.Everything came from Amazon or the local hardware store. I cut out a small narrow plate out of 1/4” aluminum. Originally I drilled and tapped 8-32 threaded holes in the aluminum, but I realized the threads might not hold up long term. Using J-B Weld I epoxied the permanent stainless 8-32 bolt into the bottom of the plate. For the top threads which would take the thumb screw I drilled a hole big enough to epoxy a stainless 8-32 nut into.
I epoxied this assembly to the top of the mast with J-B Weld Plastic Epoxy (good for carbon fiber). Carbon fiber and aluminum don’t play nicely with each other, so I made sure there was a film of epoxy between them. The wind indicator fits nicely into a 6mm stainless tube where it can be epoxied. Using a hammer I flattened the bottom of the stainless tube in order to drill the top hole and put the notch in the in the bottom using a small chain saw file.
When I first attached it to the mast I used a split lock washer and tightened the thumb screw securely. But at some point during a series of five races one Saturday with 15 mph winds, it fell off.
I’ve remade the wind indicator and stainless tube, but now I’ve drilled a small hole in the thumb screw so I can use some thin wire to safety wire it to the stainless tube to prevent the thumb screw from backing out.
Hopefully, the photos will show the details. They may not display in any kind of order.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/087e-uX ... QLayECcNOghttps://share.icloud.com/photos/0efa67A ... LAU5zV6_oQhttps://share.icloud.com/photos/0f2vCto ... d8Euxmb02Qhttps://share.icloud.com/photos/0c8Evdp ... _MO0hjZN-Q
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