Radar on stern-post or up mast?

[Babylon]

My big project this year is to fit a stand-alone radar unit on my 27ft yacht.

What are the pros and cons of fitting the radome up the mast, or as an alternative on a post secured to the pushpit? She's a heavy old girl, so not overly concerned about the extra windage aloft if I go for the up-the-mast option.

But, having had the mast down last winter, I fitted new wiring for all the nav lights and a new VHF antenna cable, and the in-mast conduits are now full.

 

[hightech]

Compromise between height to give you distance and weight up the mast.

In Practice, unless you put the radar at the top of your mast on a 27footer the extra distance you get will be fairly negligible.

If your conduits are full then you can add an external conduit or cable cleats down the outside of the mast.

Your other option is to build a gantry over the rear and put the radar on that, you then have space for solar panels,more antennas etc. If you have the clearance!

 

[sailorman]

due to various reasons i opted for a pole, its now come into its own as mast has been struck & radar scanner still on the boat with no wires to disconnect.
as for range
on a small vessel you dont really need to see much more than 5 mls on radar.
in calm conditions i have tracked a large container ship @ 9 miles well over the horizon & out of visual sight.
so my pole mounted scanner does me

 

[Malcb]

I have a radar scanner on a 'back stay' mount iwth a self levelling bracket and I find it quite adequate for seeing at leat 12 miles away. That's on a 23 foot boat.

 

[Krusty]

My big project this year is to fit a stand-alone radar unit on my 27ft yacht.

What are the pros and cons of fitting the radome up the mast,..........

Before your decision-time on radar, you might look at the recent posts on "Decision-Tree approach to COLREGS"
You might possibly want think again.
Cheers!

 

[Babylon]

Before your decision-time on radar, you might look at the recent posts on "Decision-Tree approach to COLREGS"
You might possibly want think again.
Cheers!

Thanks - been following that thread - but we displace about 9,000 lbs (27ft) of which at least half is in the encapsulated long keel, and with a small but powerful rig, so not particularly worried about a little bit of extra weight aloft.

My decision to fit radar was taken a while ago, having crewed on a night channel crossing and encountering thick fog in the middle of the shipping lanes with no radar (or AIS), skipper had all hands on deck fully kitted for abandoning ship for what seemed like an eternity. Very frightening.

The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to go for a pushpit-mounted pole, maybe with a self-leveling mount (gosh, I'd better re-read Snooks thread!).

Thanks for the feedback peeps.