Garmin wind vane GWS™ 10 - Wind Vane GONE AGAIN- now what - 2018

Well it was time for Debbie to go up the mast yet again!

Our bird spiked Garmin GWS 10  wind vane gone again!

Our best shot at keeping our Garmin GWS 10 wind vane did not work. We had put new bird spikes on the vane  but it did not work. A couple weeks later the vane was gone. So now what?

Middle of April 2018- Currently in Paradise Village Marina in Banderas Bay Mexico

Currently house sitting in Bucerias, PuertoVallarta, Mexico 

 I really thought if the wind vane had worked with the bird spikes on it, which it did, then it would stay there for a while, at least a year or two.
No way. It's gone. Lets face it, the GWS 10 was a bad design.

GWS 10 core on the top of the mast (what holds the vane and wind speed cups).

With Debbie's last trip to the US we purchased two back up wind vanes. But rather than have Debbie just replace the vane again we decided to pull the GWS 10 core off the mast and bring it down for inspection.

Debbie had a hard time getting one of the two screws out that holds the GWS 10 core

 onto the top of the mast. Debbie did prevail though and we will address that issue 

when we replace this.

 Garmin has since re-designed the GWS 10  and that is good. The bad is that to replace it a new wire and plug must be run down the mast.
Or get a wireless one and a new chart plotter for the wireless?
That is too pricey.

After a few calls to Garmin we are thinking of the gWind™ Wireless 2 Transducer. It works up to 50'. Our mast is 52 feet from the waterline. So our Garmin 740 chart plotter is about 7 feet off the water (on the binnacle) . That makes the distance 45 feet and a winner?

We took off the wind speed cups on the other side and the pin is a lot longer and has a shim and a rubber cup on the shaft. This side has neither and is shorter. They are supposed to be the same on each side.

 Still figuring this all out. The person we are house sitting for is coming back in 10 days or so. He could possibly bring just the old type back with him?
Update:
 We took the Garmin GWS 10 to the weld shop and are waiting to see if they do do a repair.  Garmin no longer has the GWS 10 available to purchase.