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windex The brand name of a Davis Instruments product, often used generically to describe a mechanical masthead wind vane used on sailboats to determine the apparent wind angle by sight — as opposed to having one that relays this information electronically to meters in the cockpit and nav station. It includes a rotating arrow vane with head and tail, and fixed markers usually set at wind angles of about 150° to port and starboard. Looking up to the masthead, when the tail is on a marker, the apparent wind angle is 30°; when the head is on the marker, the apparent wind angle is 150°. Sometimes, any masthead wind vane on a sailboat, mechanical or electrical, is referred to as the "windex." See G141 for a diagram of a windex and other wind instruments.

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