Yacht radar

[EdWingfield]

Just prior to myself and another yacht leaving the harbour I asked the skipper if he would monitor me on his radar as our courses diverged. Results (in perfect conditions) At half a mile I was well visible, at 1.5M I'd dissappeared.

This was dissappointing to me as I've got one of those thin cylindrical reflectors at the spreader. It might well've been dissappointing to him too.

Has anyone carried out tests, and what distance off can I reasonably expect to be seen?

 

[rob2]

With one of those slim cylindrical devices, you will disappear into the clutter in no time. Try the MAIB web site or PBO for their review. Only the large cylindrical types, e.g. Firdell or Echomax, or the larger Tri-lens were really rated. Their tests could not tell the difference with the thin cylindrical type hoisted or not!

Ultimately an active RTE gives best results on X band (used inshore by commercial shipping) but offshore the bigger reflectors are still necessary for S band response.

 

[curious]

I have a Firdell fixed to the mast under top cross trees. A few years ago I called up a cross channel ferry south bound off St Catherine's, the Isle of Wight, and asked could they see me on their radar. At this point they were about a mile away. The reply was that they had had me on their screen for the last 20 miles. It was day time with good visibility and a moderate sea.

 

[rwoofer]

I had a Blipper as well and could get seen from quite a distance. This is why I'm even more confused by the MAIB Ouzo investigation that basically says the blipper was pretty useless as well. Most people argue that real world performance is worse outside of the lab, but why are we getting seemingly better results in practice?

 

[EdWingfield]

Yes, I've heard from a ferry captain that he can see yachts ok. (as I was planning to cross the North Sea using his waypoints and warning him not to run me down in the night)

But if yacht radars are such short range things? I'dve hoped he would've seen me at that distance reflector or not.

 

[jstr]

I have the smaller Tri-Lens just below the spreaders and can be seen clearly by my mate in his 46 footer using his Raymarine C120 and 18" Raydome at 5 miles. (Middle of the Channel)

 

[Oldhand]

Apart from the cylinderical radar reflector probably beiing useless, the gain adjustment on the other boat's radar would have been relevant to the range he could see you at. If his gain setting was suitable for large targets and coastlines, 1.5 miles is proabaly about right to see a yacht without an effective reflector. If his gain was set to "automatic" adjustment, the gain is likely to have been low as you said you had just left harbour and the coast was probably giving a strong return. By increasing gain appropriately, the range would probably have increased to about 3nm.

I guess the above then raises the question of how many yacht radars are used on automatic gain without manual adjustment being used?