Has anyone made their own radar mast? Can you point me to any pictures or
descriptions of construction?

Ideally you want 1.5" 1/8" wall 5000 series tube which is not easy to find.
You can machine the deck fitting and rail clamps fairly easily but the dome
mount will be cheaper to buy than have made. If you don't have access to a
machine shop it will probably cost more than buying it off the shelf.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Paul Nightingale" wrote in message
landnet.com...
Has anyone made their own radar mast? Can you point me to any pictures or
descriptions of construction?

Paul Nightingale wrote:
Has anyone made their own radar mast? Can you point me to any pictures or
descriptions of construction?



I have had mine made by a local guy who can weld Stainless.

Here's a link to some photo's:

http://tinyurl.com/z9jqz

It's made out of 50 mm stainless pipe, with a coupling halfway. The
coupling is necessary since the boat goes into storage for winter, and
the door ain't high enough :-)

The coupling is actually one used for beverages so it's really
water-tight (in Dutch we call this a "milk-coupling"). It did mean I had
to add the secondary struts, but this would have been necessary with 50
mm pipe anyway probably. A friend of mine has his made out of 100 mm
stainless, but that's sooo heavy.

Cost (HW + 6 manhours) was 800 EUR (around 600 USD at the time, now it's
more like 1000 USD).

--
Kees

Made my post for a Furuno 1623 out of a 2 inch alloy pole found at a
sailing club - either a boom or spinnaker pole. I cut the platform
from 6mm marine alloy sheet together with some reinforcing corners.
Socket was made from a SS316 tube cut to make a clamp and bolted
through into superstructure. Painted with Hammerite primer and white
smooth paint Cost £very little. Seems to be prefectly rigid in use
with slight flexing in strong winds. May fit a brace to the
wheelhouse.

Can be seen he
http://www.luxe-motor-kei.co.uk/steel/page/image58.html
http://www.luxe-motor-kei.co.uk/exte...e/image40.html
http://www.luxe-motor-kei.co.uk/deli...e/image42.html

wrote in message
ups.com...
Made my post for a Furuno 1623 out of a 2 inch alloy pole found at a
sailing club - either a boom or spinnaker pole. I cut the platform
from 6mm marine alloy sheet together with some reinforcing corners.
Socket was made from a SS316 tube cut to make a clamp and bolted
through into superstructure. Painted with Hammerite primer and white
smooth paint Cost £very little. Seems to be prefectly rigid in use
with slight flexing in strong winds. May fit a brace to the
wheelhouse.

Looks you have a workable solution there, but I went back to image 1 of your
launch and delivery voyage and flipped through the whole album.. It looked
like a fun trip until you got to the canals. How much clearance was there
for the wheel in image 73, low bridge? I have a friend in northern England
and we have talked about the Yorkshire-Sheffield canal system
(http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/sheffield/index.htm ) several times.

Leanne

The clearance was the thickness of the paint on the stem and on the
underside on the bridge beam - my stem has blue paint on it. Barge was
designed to go under that particular bridge!! I had to take the wheel
off - and had a car steering wheel to put on under the bridge.

wrote:
The clearance was the thickness of the paint on the stem and on the
underside on the bridge beam - my stem has blue paint on it. Barge was
designed to go under that particular bridge!! I had to take the wheel
off - and had a car steering wheel to put on under the bridge.


I guess the idea is that when the boat is fully fitted you don't need to
load bags of sand (?) ballast anymore :-)

--
Kees

The ballast shown is the permanent ballast that is under the floor. 10
tons of galvanised steel punchings.

Bought a ten foot length of two and one-half inch diameter aluminum
pipe in a scrapyard for $10. This is the diameter of the larger
Garhauer radar poles. Got a flat plate welded to one end with holes for
cables and accessories for about $60. Had it powdercoated white for
$100. Bought three sets of radar pole brackets from Garhauer, about
$80 I think. There is a bracket that clamps around the pole and
another bracket that clamps onto the stern rail. These three bracket
pairs are connected using one inch SS tube and fittings that you use to
put dodgers/biminis together with. Maybe another $100. Two of the SS
tubes go from opposite sides of one corner in the stern rail to a point
about four or five feet up the pole. The third pair of brackets goes
straight back from the pole to the top tube of the stern rail. The
base of the pole fits into a socket I machined out of a block of
plastic. Its held down with two turnbuckles and cables. Also braced
my stern rail to the back of the cockpit with an SS tube. I can take
the whole thing down for service fairly quickly and without unbolting
anything from the deck. How long it lasts only time will tell but I
don't think it will fall down.

As an alternative, what would a radar arch cost? I have been thinking that
this may be a better way to go - besides supporting the radome, other
electronics, solar panels etc can be located there and a bimini could
perhaps be incorporated?

GBM

wrote in message
ups.com...
Bought a ten foot length of two and one-half inch diameter aluminum
pipe in a scrapyard for $10. This is the diameter of the larger
Garhauer radar poles. Got a flat plate welded to one end with holes for
cables and accessories for about $60. Had it powdercoated white for
$100. Bought three sets of radar pole brackets from Garhauer, about
$80 I think. There is a bracket that clamps around the pole and
another bracket that clamps onto the stern rail. These three bracket
pairs are connected using one inch SS tube and fittings that you use to
put dodgers/biminis together with. Maybe another $100. Two of the SS
tubes go from opposite sides of one corner in the stern rail to a point
about four or five feet up the pole. The third pair of brackets goes
straight back from the pole to the top tube of the stern rail. The
base of the pole fits into a socket I machined out of a block of
plastic. Its held down with two turnbuckles and cables. Also braced
my stern rail to the back of the cockpit with an SS tube. I can take
the whole thing down for service fairly quickly and without unbolting
anything from the deck. How long it lasts only time will tell but I
don't think it will fall down.