There is a review on radars in practical sailor recently. Their high
pick was the furuno 1725(?) I had it a liked it.

Bob

Charlie Morgan wrote:
On 7 Nov 2006 10:29:11 -0800, "luc" wrote:

I read in Practical Sailor about radar, and their reccomendations were
the Furuno 1715 (? I think), and not rated as good was the 1623. I
have a race boat, and want a radar, but as small and light as possible.
While sailing aboard Derek Baylis, a Wylie Cat 65 this past weekend, I
asked the captain what he thought of the 1623, since that is what was
on board. He answered that it was the worst piece of junk for a radar
he's ever seen, and he has much experience. Here I was ready to buy
one, but now not so sure about the 1623.

A few questions. Is there another small radar that is good? Is the
quality of the radar directly related to the size of the radome? What
are the pros and cons of locating a radar on short mast aft, as many
cruisers have, or on the main mast of a sloop?

thanks for any help,

Luc

The 1623 is a very good quality, but small and basic, RADAR. It would
help to know precisely why that captain didn't like it. He may be
comparing it to very large, open array equipped commercial boat RADAR.
No smaller RADAR with a covered array is going to compete with that.
That doesn't make the smaller units junk, though.

What kind of situations do you encounter that RADAR seems like it
would be helpful. Do you cruise as well as race? What sort of areas as
far as traffic, and general conditions?

CWM