Barking Sands
Guru
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2019
- Messages
- 981
- Location
- New Port Richey, Fl
- Vessel Name
- M/V Intrigue
- Vessel Make
- 1985 Tung Hwa Senator
The original mast is long gone and I would not like the placement anyways. It was in the middle of the upper deck and of course resulted in leaks over the years. The previous owner had it removed and patched the area.
Now I am plotting out where the radar will go and I need a radar pole or mast. My boat is advertised as a 31 foot and is a loose copy of a Grand Banks 32 or an Island Gypsy 32. See pictures.
I do not want to through bolt it into the cabin. I have already decided and purchased 3 inch OD 6061 T6 aluminum pipe .125 wall. Should be plenty sturdy to Hold the Garmin GMR Phantom 18x inch 50 watt unit.
So I have basically 3 choices from what I can see.
1) Mount it to the aft upper deck overhang. Through bolted and then tied to the aft upper rails with 2 supports from the mast to the rails. Doing this I have access to run the wires under the headliner where the other wires are. It will be tricky to run the wires but should be doable. The wires will terminate behind the overhead panels at the lower helm. Wire running difficulty would probably be a 6 or 7. This would be the weakest configuration as far as lateral strength. The pipe needs to be very tall to have good line of sight over the bimini.
2) Same as above but run a continuous pipe through the over hang and down to the deck . There would be a flange welded to the pipe at the pipe pass through on upper deck as well as lower mount pad. This would be very strong. Strong enough that if enough force was applied at the top of the pipe, the pipe would likely give way before the structure. There would be exposed pipe between the door threshold and the window. But it should fit. Running the wires would be a much more difficult. The pipe needs to be very tall to have good line of sight over the bimini.
3) Run the pipe through the upper helm flat surface near the gauges and extend it through all the way to the floor. This again gives 2 mount point as the pipe will have flanges at the upper pass through as well as the bottom mount. Wiring will take about 15 minutes since there is a pass through and the network GMS10 router is just below the floor. It also gives the clearest line of sight forward and the mast only needs to be just higher than the bimini. See example of the bottom picture with the fwd mounted radar/mast.
I am leaning towards #3. But my wife HATES the idea because there will be a 3 inch pole in the way. But IMO the pole is so off to the side when seated on either side it will likely only impede a degree or so of view that is easily overcome. I would trade the loss of 1 degree of sightline in great day time weather in exchange for completely unobstructed forward radar view when needed most. I of course can get the same unobstructed radar view from the rear mounted radar but it will have to go quite a bit higher. That makes the boat look goofy since its a smaller boat IMO.
But..I may be way off base. For instance. How far out in front of the boat do you guys want to see in bad weather or fog on the radar screen? The GMR Phantom is a dual range radar advertised from 20 feet to 48 miles so I would like to have good close in performance when needed.
This is the first boat I have owned that will have radar so I need you more experienced cruisers advice on what is important.
Thanks in advance and here are a couple of pics of my boat and other examples of fwd mount and aft mount radars.
Now I am plotting out where the radar will go and I need a radar pole or mast. My boat is advertised as a 31 foot and is a loose copy of a Grand Banks 32 or an Island Gypsy 32. See pictures.
I do not want to through bolt it into the cabin. I have already decided and purchased 3 inch OD 6061 T6 aluminum pipe .125 wall. Should be plenty sturdy to Hold the Garmin GMR Phantom 18x inch 50 watt unit.
So I have basically 3 choices from what I can see.
1) Mount it to the aft upper deck overhang. Through bolted and then tied to the aft upper rails with 2 supports from the mast to the rails. Doing this I have access to run the wires under the headliner where the other wires are. It will be tricky to run the wires but should be doable. The wires will terminate behind the overhead panels at the lower helm. Wire running difficulty would probably be a 6 or 7. This would be the weakest configuration as far as lateral strength. The pipe needs to be very tall to have good line of sight over the bimini.
2) Same as above but run a continuous pipe through the over hang and down to the deck . There would be a flange welded to the pipe at the pipe pass through on upper deck as well as lower mount pad. This would be very strong. Strong enough that if enough force was applied at the top of the pipe, the pipe would likely give way before the structure. There would be exposed pipe between the door threshold and the window. But it should fit. Running the wires would be a much more difficult. The pipe needs to be very tall to have good line of sight over the bimini.
3) Run the pipe through the upper helm flat surface near the gauges and extend it through all the way to the floor. This again gives 2 mount point as the pipe will have flanges at the upper pass through as well as the bottom mount. Wiring will take about 15 minutes since there is a pass through and the network GMS10 router is just below the floor. It also gives the clearest line of sight forward and the mast only needs to be just higher than the bimini. See example of the bottom picture with the fwd mounted radar/mast.
I am leaning towards #3. But my wife HATES the idea because there will be a 3 inch pole in the way. But IMO the pole is so off to the side when seated on either side it will likely only impede a degree or so of view that is easily overcome. I would trade the loss of 1 degree of sightline in great day time weather in exchange for completely unobstructed forward radar view when needed most. I of course can get the same unobstructed radar view from the rear mounted radar but it will have to go quite a bit higher. That makes the boat look goofy since its a smaller boat IMO.
But..I may be way off base. For instance. How far out in front of the boat do you guys want to see in bad weather or fog on the radar screen? The GMR Phantom is a dual range radar advertised from 20 feet to 48 miles so I would like to have good close in performance when needed.
This is the first boat I have owned that will have radar so I need you more experienced cruisers advice on what is important.
Thanks in advance and here are a couple of pics of my boat and other examples of fwd mount and aft mount radars.
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