[C38] Wind Instruments. Industry changing
D. R. Strong
drstrong at ucdavis.edu
Fri May 28 10:30:10 EDT 2010
Charles:
Your story is consistent with the evolution of the marine
electronics industry as related to me by a sailing buddy, who was a high
exec at Magellan. Magellan was bought by Thales, a French Aerospace
firm, which changed its name to Magellan, partly but not totally, then
gobbled up other companies and was partly consumed by yet other
companies etc etc.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thales_Navigation). A
few years ago, I could get no service or help for my old Magellan GPS,
and I gave it away. Now I see that I can buy it back, from a company
called Magellan
(http://www.magellangps.com/products/product.asp?segid=591).
Last time my original, 30 year old Signet wind gauge malfunctioned,
I called the company. Their engineers talked and talked to me on the
phone from the offices in Redondo Beach CA. They were extremely helpful.
I sent my depth sounder, speedo, log and my wind instrument to them and
received back refurbished, like-new devices, which have worked very well
for the past 5 years. A Google search suggests that they are still in
Redondo Beach.
Don
Charles B. Finn wrote:
> A few years back, I decided to go with Navman for my upgrade from
> Signet.... What a mistake! Navman was sold and merged into
> Northstar, which has discontinued the line and offers absolutely no
> support!
> The problem is the LCD display fades erratically. I have taken the
> unit apart and it appears the connection is "glued" to the
> motherboard, which is bizarre to say the least!
> I could have gone with other brands such as Datamarine or Raymarine,
> but I had problems with those folks regarding maintenance on other
> boats I have owned...
> Now there is a rumor that Raymarine is in trouble... They were sold
> to Flir Systems (a thermal imaging company) in May for pennies on the
> dollar. Maybe that is a good thing, but I went down this road with
> Navman...
>
> Has anyone done some research lately on instruments? If so, what
> would you recommend?
>
> Regards,
> Chuck Finn
> Mighty Quinn #114
> Great Lakes
>
>
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--
Donald R. Strong
Professor
Section of Evolution and Ecology
University of California Davis
95616
530 752 7886
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