Singlehanded round the UK - which boat?

A mate of mine did his research and bought the best performing radar reflector to fit on his wooden boat. As a test he called up a cruise ship and said he was the small yacht 1M abeam to port. Please could you check my visibility on your radar?
The O.O.W. came back after 5mins and told him that even after fine adjustments to the settings he couldn't see him.

This in smooth sea and clear viz.
 
EdWingfield said:
A mate of mine did his research and bought the best performing radar reflector to fit on his wooden boat. As a test he called up a cruise ship and said he was the small yacht 1M abeam to port. Please could you check my visibility on your radar?
The O.O.W. came back after 5mins and told him that even after fine adjustments to the settings he couldn't see him.
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This might develop into an anchor thread. Personally I have AIS and radar on board and have the attitude that it is my responsibility to keep out of their way. Yes I know the ColRegs, but I can adjust my course by 2 degrees and miss them by a mile much, much easier than they can.
 
The use of "we" in Snooks radar comment is key - to use small-boat radar effectively you need someone watching it fairly constantly - not really possible when you're on your own.
 
I have no experience of sailing round the UK and my comment is based on sailing from Sydney and round Tasmania. We do not use AIS because the hazards would not show up, fishing boats, crayfish pot markers and little runabouts (fishing). Commercial boats that are required to have AIS, 300t + are usually well lit and on regular routes (and show up well on radar). Radar is also useful to track thunderstorms, and rain in addition to offering you an actual plot of the coastline. If you opted for Broadband it is sufficiently accurate close range to allow you to enter almost any anchorage or port in the dark and fog. We often use it to centre ourselves in an anchorage, more accurate than looking. So we have opted to prioritise radar (but we have little larger commercial traffic anyway).

edit

Our radar, chart plotter etc etc is all available at the helm (and on iPad, anywhere on the yacht) We cannot control the autopilot from the iPad but can swap screens etc.

close edit

But circumnavigating the UK - one of those must do's I'm going to miss, I'm slightly envious.

Jonathan
 
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My radar/ais is visible and operable from the tiller.
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...d-the-UK-which-boat/page5#MgrD7E34bubEmtDi.99

Graham, if our paths ever crossed I would ask you to check my visibility on radar. You see, the last yacht skipper I asked seemed to be incompetent or the set was faulty. I waited 5 mins and called him up for a result. He needed more time. I waited another 5 mins and still no result.

I uprgraded to AIS overlayed on plotter a couple of years ago - particularly because I was intending to single-hand off Holland and English Channel. This year I crossed the Off Casquets TSS and it was busy both directions. I was grateful for the upgrade.
 
Concerto said:
Unless it is overlaid on the chart plotted and mounted on deck, like most plotters today.
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But how big does the plotter need to be? I have a 5 inch screen & it seems to me that any such info would be far to cluttered to be of much use. Especially if one cannot get up close & needs glasses to read ( covered in spray of course)& the boat is bobbing around like a cork whilst pressing an array of buttons to zoom in & out
 
Although I can see radar is a great tool when the weather turns there's only so much we can carry on our boats.

My plan when I start venturing further afield is to have an AIS transponder and XS Radar Targer Enhancer. In my mind making yourself as visible as possible is no1 priority and although you can't assume other boats have an AIS reciever or radar and even if they do they would be looking at them anything small enough not to have them shouldn't do me much harm (famous last words). Hopefully in bad weather most fishing boats out will have radar and have it switched on, the RTE would at least alert me there's something in the area and if nothing shows on AIS I can put a call out on 16 or very least put me on high alert.

Plus both of these use very little power.
 
You're right, works both ways, if I'm out sailing solo in bad weather I'll probably be sailing. If they have their radar on a RTE will at least alert me something is out there. If it was fog I would hope the skipper of any boat with radar would have it turned on. Not only will the RTE alert me it will also give me a good chance of being spotted on the screen.
 
Yellow Ballad said:
You're right, works both ways, if I'm out sailing solo in bad weather I'll probably be sailing. If they have their radar on a RTE will at least alert me something is out there. If it was fog I would hope the skipper of any boat with radar would have it turned on. Not only will the RTE alert me it will also give me a good chance of being spotted on the screen.
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Greetings, I find it interesting that people use their RTE to alert them that something is out there. I have an X band Echomax, and keep the bleeper switched off, because otherwise it's going constantly even if no other traffic is even visible anywhere round the horizon.
 
Prasutigus said:
Greetings, I find it interesting that people use their RTE to alert them that something is out there. I have an X band Echomax, and keep the bleeper switched off, because otherwise it's going constantly even if no other traffic is even visible anywhere round the horizon.
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That is a problem I found going round UK . even in waters with seemingly little shipping the thing has so much range even mounted on the aft rail at 2 m high that it just keeps bleeping.
 
So, people, do you have a Radar Target Enhancer and if so do you use the alarm, and do you have it active all the time?

There's a story (probably apocryphal) that when RTEs first came out a Navy captain nearly had a heart attack when a strong target suddenly appeared on the radar nearby - not a submarine, but a yacht that had turned on its RTE.
 
iLens said:
So, people, do you have a Radar Target Enhancer and if so do you use the alarm, and do you have it active all the time?
.
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I leave mine on all the time. There is no need to have the alarm on. All it tells you is that you are being painted by radar. It does not tell you if the vessel using the radar is actually coming near you or likely to be of consequence. For that one would use the CPA alarm on the AIS. But once again, although I have my aerial at 2 metres it still picks up ships at 40+ miles & I can do without endless bleeping so that alarm is turned off as well.
Where these alarms come in handy is in less densely populated waters when one wants a kip & this alerts one to a vessel in the area. The same in fog. But setting it in fog in the Channel would cause a heart attack to know that there was so much about. Better not to know sometimes !!!!!!!
 
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Tony Head of Jester fame did a talk for the Welsh Jester meet I organised (Very nice of him as well) said he was told if you use a foil wrapped tube with a vertical slot in it you can spin the tube around the 360 to see in what direction you're being pinged. I can't remember if he said he had tried it but could be a neat trick if it worked.
 
iLens said:
So, people, do you have a Radar Target Enhancer and if so do you use the alarm, and do you have it active all the time?
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I have an RTE too, and it's great watching big ships give you room as they are overtaking. While going into Ardglass (above), the skipper of a yacht, that came in before us, came over to find out what radar reflector we had and we were giving a strong echo.

I don't use it to tell me it's what's out there as it's just above the radar (cleared it with the manfuacturers before anyone says anything) so that function is no good if my radar is on.
 
I've an Echomax RTE on my wooden Folkboat, with wooden spars, 'coz otherwise the greatest reflector onboard was my kettle, or my fillings if I smiled!
 
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