Mounting Radar On A Junk Rig

  • 08 Apr 2012 20:42
    Reply # 884851 on 836109
    Hi again Robert. I've finally unearthed the image of that boat that I mentioned in my post above. Funny how memory plays tricks - the scanner is mounted between the masts, rather than in front of the foremast. I've posted the image of IRIS in the Photogallery of Members Boats.
    Last modified: 08 Apr 2012 20:51 | Anonymous member
  • 26 Feb 2012 20:07
    Reply # 836232 on 836109
    While motoring up the Guadiana River (border of Spain and Portugal) several years ago we passed an anchored junk of probably 35 feet with a radar scanner mounted on a pole on the bow. I have a picture somewhere but it 's not accessible at the moment. There was never anyone on board to chat with. I mentioned it to Robin Blain when I got back to the UK and he knew the boat.

    I imagine the scanner's forward view would have been fine, but the foremast - alloy, I think -  was pretty close behind it, so I guess the rear view could have been marred. Like you I've never had radar (only 'needed' it maybe three times in 30 years of summer sailing), so I don't know if the latter observation is correct. Having it up front seemed a better option than on some kind of stern pole or gantry, where I'd worry about it frying brains, though loads of boats in the UK have them there.

    Our Freedom's sails have ended up well below the mastheads, so were we to fit radar we would have the option of attaching the scanner below the mastheads, where Freedoms often carry them anyway, the masts being carbon fibre. I don't know whether to do this, though. I suspect I'd rather eat the money.
    Last modified: 26 Feb 2012 20:10 | Anonymous member
  • 26 Feb 2012 14:52
    Message # 836109
    Deleted user
    I'm considering mounting a radar on Easy Go to make sailing the fog bound coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland safer and more enjoyable. Electronics and high tech have eluded me to this point in time.

    Mounting a radar seems problematic.

    I don't think it would reside well on the top of an unstayed mast placing weight high and likely whipping around quite a bit. 

    Mounting at the stern of the boat would also add to the clutter and weight that we already have there with sheets, horse, windvane steering and stern light. I don't know how well a radar would project forward through the clutter that two aluminum masts with their associated aluminum battens and yards not to mention the block themselves. I understand that wet sailcloth also inhibits good radar reception.

    I have sailed close to the Maltese Falcon http://www.symaltesefalcon.com and they have their radar on a separate small mast on the bow along with lighting and antennae. Now we're somewhere over 200 hundred feet shorter so while this is a viable option it would take some reconfiguring of the bow.

    Has anyone mounted a radar on a Junk Rig? What were the results? Any adviise?
       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

                                                              Site contents © the Junk Rig Association and/or individual authors

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software