Where should I mount my radar?

Where should I mount my radar?

  • In front of mast

    Votes: 9 81.8%

  • On pole at stern

    Votes: 2 18.2%

  • On starboard spreader

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    11
Sea Change

Sea Change

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13 Feb 2014
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Boat is a Jeanneau Sun Kiss 47, twin inline spreaders, with a furling staysail.
I have a Silentwind 400 on a pole at the stern that I never bother using and could remove.

Primary use for the radar is to detect small fast motorboats in fog. Secondary use is to monitor thunderstorms.

Interested to see where the forum thinks would be the best place to mount the radome.
 
Mine is up the mast, good range, and it's out of the way.. my mate had debated fitting his on a pole at the stern but after we costed that option, and looked at routing the cable etc we opted to put it up the mast.

His boat is smaller and we were able to put a ladder up as far as the spreaders, we fitted the scanner just above this.

We also felt getting out of the way of the radar waves was probably a good thing...
 
pandos said:
my mate had debated fitting his on a pole at the stern but after we costed that option, and looked at routing the cable etc we opted to put it up the mast.
Click to expand...
The pole would likely be cheaper and easier for me, since it's right next to the MFD and the pole is already there. But I'm not sure if the lower height brings too many downsides.
 
We too put ours on the mast. If you have it on a pole at the stern then the pole has to be quite significant to take the scanner which will be waving around, waves, with lots of momentum. A stern mount does mean you have the mast shadowing some of the forward scan. Fog is not a big issue with us but the small MoBos used by locals for leisure fishing can be a danger as they are low in the water and lack decent lights. For thunderstorms - which we do have - radar is a god send as you have the opportunity to dodge and sail between the cells. But its not a panacea - cells form and you cannot avoid them.

if you remove the mast, as many do out of season, then having a proprietary plug is the way to go.

Radar uses lots of power and at the time Simrad's broadband was the way to go - things have changed, improved.

You will develop more information the higher the scan, and a mast offers a significantly higher location, unless you had had a ketch (which you don't)

You will already have a cable run from the mast, your VHF and nav lights - its not that difficult, usually, to add someone to that cable run through the 'provided' conduits. But extra radar cable is a cost.

Its a 2 person task feeding radar cable into a mast, it would be frustrating to do it single handed.


We were contrary and liked our wind gen and would buy another (and we would buy Sky Wind). You can never have enough power and even 'sunny' Sydney can have 4 days of minimalist solar. But we would also want a hydro gen. Your radar will come into its own at night - when you will have all the equipment on.

Radar is also good to dodge rain.

Jonathan
 
Last edited:
Ours is on the mast, just above the first spreader and offset partially to the starboard side.
The reason for being offset is that we have a jib with vertical battens and it would foul on a radar scanner in front of the mast. Works well.
But if not got a fancy blade jib that needs clearance, for most people in front of the mast is the default.
 
I didn’t want to sully my beautiful new mast and specified a pole at the stern, which I have never regretted. The range is perfectly adequate, with large vessels at 10-20 miles and small ones 2-5 miles. If the range is limited, it hasn’t been a problem, and a significant advantage is the lack of sea clutter. Not only that, but is is easy to reach up and clean it! More importantly, I was able to bask in satisfaction recently when the mast had to be taken down for new rigging and of course the radar connection was unaffected. I also like to think that having the weight lower was beneficial to the boat’s sailing qualities too.

Mounted at the stern seems to be much more popular abroad than over here but maybe it will catch on more. I believe that the correct place for a pole, as on my boat, is to starboard since the pilot of a helicopter, should it be needed, has a better view when approaching the port quarter.
 
My radar was mounted on the mastbelow the spreaders and protected by the baby stay. Being a cat it was a relatively stable platform. The cable was run in trunking riveted to the mast as I didn't want to drill quite large holes in the mast and then have the cable banging around. The trunking sprayed the same colour as the mast was hardly noticeable.
 
So I managed to pick up a secondhand mast mount. The mount will have eight fixings altogether, two in each foot.
Next question- should I use rivets, self tappers, or bolts (with threads tapped in to the mast).

I'm inclined to go with bolts. Mast wall is about 4.5mm thickness. I know rivets would be faster but I'm not convinced they'd really be all that sturdy. Maybe I'm being paranoid?
 
Sea Change said:
So I managed to pick up a secondhand mast mount. The mount will have eight fixings altogether, two in each foot.
Next question- should I use rivets, self tappers, or bolts (with threads tapped in to the mast).

I'm inclined to go with bolts. Mast wall is about 4.5mm thickness. I know rivets would be faster but I'm not convinced they'd really be all that sturdy. Maybe I'm being paranoid?
Click to expand...
Rivets are fine. Use Monel.
 
Sea Change said:
So I managed to pick up a secondhand mast mount. The mount will have eight fixings altogether, two in each foot.
Next question- should I use rivets, self tappers, or bolts (with threads tapped in to the mast).

I'm inclined to go with bolts. Mast wall is about 4.5mm thickness. I know rivets would be faster but I'm not convinced they'd really be all that sturdy. Maybe I'm being paranoid?
Click to expand...
Most masts use rivets for the rigging !
 
Well that seems pretty unanimous!
I thought that tapping and bolting would be easier and involve buying less new stuff. The mast is up so using the rivet gun could be tricky. I'll have to check whether it can take large enough rivets.
Fortunately I can get Amazon deliveries without too much trouble, just a 4 mile round trip on the bike. And we're in a nice place so I don't mind hanging around for a few days while things arrive.
 
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