Height of radar above waterline ?

Daydream believer said:
When sailing single handed I have enough to do & look at. Operating the AIS is awkward enough on a rolling boat, fingering the chart plotter, whilst trying to helm, or watching where one is going . The extra hassle of radar would be system overload for me. The only time I would apreciate it would be in fog. Then I would possibly too busy helming & gazing into the abiss to operate it, even though it is supposed to do the staring for me. I just could not sail/motor along without physically looking, rather than staring at a screen 6ft away from the helm- or worse still down below.
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We fitted radar for an early season (long) North Sea crossing - high risk of fog, and if had been 2+ solid days of sailing in fog would have been very stressful. Rarely gets used, but when it is used has been really helpful.

When solo at any time in fog will be on autopilot - as too easy to get disoriented and veer wildly off course when doing other stuff.
We have chart plotter near the helm, which is used for navigation and has the AIS targets overlaid.
In fog run radar from (slightly more modern) chart table plotter but always viewed from iPad in waterproof case round my neck. In this way can be in cockpit looking where going, but also refer to dedicated navigation and radar screens (the later also has the AIS overlays).
 
If you do fit a radar you need to comply with this, also for existing radar/VHF installations.

Boat owners in the United Kingdom holding a VHF radio licence must ensure compliance with the new licence conditions introduced by Ofcom.
The new licence conditions have been introduced by Ofcom due to concerns about the risk of exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions which are transmitted by all radio equipment. This change in licence conditions affects boat owners using radio, radar and other emergency alerting equipment on UK vessels.
For most radio equipment, Ofcom requires existing licence holders to have assessed compliance with the new licence conditions by 18 November 2021 (except for HF/ SSB transmitters for which the effective date is 22 May 2022). This assessment is a fairly simple process for most leisure marine installations of Radio Frequency (RF) equipment.

details here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/ass...ondition-what-you-need-to-know-ship-radio.pdf
 
ColinR said:
If you do fit a radar you need to comply with this, also for existing radar/VHF installations.

Boat owners in the United Kingdom holding a VHF radio licence must ensure compliance with the new licence conditions introduced by Ofcom.
The new licence conditions have been introduced by Ofcom due to concerns about the risk of exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions which are transmitted by all radio equipment. This change in licence conditions affects boat owners using radio, radar and other emergency alerting equipment on UK vessels.
For most radio equipment, Ofcom requires existing licence holders to have assessed compliance with the new licence conditions by 18 November 2021 (except for HF/ SSB transmitters for which the effective date is 22 May 2022). This assessment is a fairly simple process for most leisure marine installations of Radio Frequency (RF) equipment.

details here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/ass...ondition-what-you-need-to-know-ship-radio.pdf
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I think for most modern leisure radars this is not a great issue. Mine emits 0.165w.

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Although Ses Hawk has a radar set, the display gave problems a few years ago and as I seldom needed radar I neglected to get anything done about it. In fact the display unit was not even aboard this year when I was taking the passage round the Mull of Kintyre. And about 400 metres after rounding Deas point I saw the boat 100 metres ahead disappear. Now motoring with the tide we were doing over 12 knots and so we were in the fog bank about 20 seconds later. There were also another 3 boats within half a mile going the same way and it was a worrying situation until we all came out into clear weather about 5 miles later.

My display is now working and will be aboard in future!
 
roblpm said:
OK thanks. I wonder how often they inspect sailing yachts....?!!! Obviously I am a very law abiding person but how would they possibly check or know?!
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Extremely unlikely to check, but it is a brand new requirement this year so who can tell. Filling in the Cruising Association form is a 5-10 minute exercise so most probably find worth doing rather than thinking about whether to do so or not - which may take longer :cool:
 
dunedin said:
Extremely unlikely to check, but it is a brand new requirement this year so who can tell. Filling in the Cruising Association form is a 5-10 minute exercise so most probably find worth doing rather than thinking about whether to do so or not - which may take longer :cool:
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Sure. I will fill the forms when I get a boat and a radar! ? I run a business whose job is filling in forms so I am very good at it!

But.... Now I am interested. Do ofcom have the power to board yachts and ask for paperwork?!
 
Graham376 said:
Having had radar for many years but not AIS, I would say the opposite. AIS will only show up anything transmitting which doesn't include small boats, buoys, rocks and coastline. The radar range will be better than the 4nm the OP mentions as objects of interest are above waterline horizon.
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I was surprised when I got Radar to see how "laggy" AIS data is, certainly on the busy S Coast. Radar tells me where a vessel is in real time, not in the past. Knew AIS was always somewhat out of date but it was a bit of an eye openeer
 
matt1 said:
I was surprised when I got Radar to see how "laggy" AIS data is, certainly on the busy S Coast. Radar tells me where a vessel is in real time, not in the past. Knew AIS was always somewhat out of date but it was a bit of an eye openeer
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Are you sure your heading sensor is correctly calibrated? Class B lags a bit on my set but class A is usually pretty accurate.
 
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