handheld VHF as boat's main VHF ?

[Andrew G]

+1 to Searush's comments. H/h are very hard on batteries and I would not trust my life to one (not that I've yet had to call for help in 60 years of sailing). Either you leave it on charge and kill the battery or not and it is flat when you want to use it. As also said above, 5W is next to useless when the fan is rotating - barely adequate to organise a berth at a nearby marina. And yes I've had to do the 1 click for yes and 2 for no to see if there was live-firing in the middle of a practice range 100Nm from the shore station.

To put it in context - what is the cost of a new (or re-furbed) VHF set vs a few refuelings of the car or boat (or a doz bottles of good red)? Andrew.

 

[Daydream believer]

It depends what you want to use the vhf for. For normal use ie calling a port control, it would be perfectly ok without any extended aerial
Re range
On one dark & windy night 14 miles north of Eyemouth i was too ill to go below but had my hand held vhf on deck
I tried to contact coastguard & they picked me up immediately but could only do so on channel 16
Not sure where the CG aerial was but the lifeboat could only hear me when about 3 miles away
That suggests to me that whilst i could only send a weak signal the CG were able to pick it up so must have some clever listening equipment
In an emergency it is mainly the coastguard one wants to alert so a hand held is better than nothing. The receiving station may still hear you when further than the usual stated distances. On clear early mornings i can often pick up Ostende radio Cap Gris Nez & Dover from the east coast which is much farther than one might expect. Standing on the cabin top next to the mast( to hold on to) will also increase range in emergency
Of course the hand held may get you into a mayday relay situation which would also help in emergency.
So my point is that you may not need the aerial equipment you propose