RADAR for 17-foot Skiff

[Teleni]

I am contemplating installing a RADAR on my Montauk 17. I will not be using it a lot but only on those really foggy days where the visibility is limited.

Q1: what is the smallest RADAR that Montauk 17 owners have on their boat?

Any advice and recommendation will be greatly appreciated.

[Phil T]

Reconsider.

Adding RADAR will require a tall mast or radar arch (at a cost of $2,000 to$3,000), special mounting techniques, and upgrading the electrical system.

Decent brands include Garmin, Furuno, Simrad and Lowrance. Avoid Raymarine, as it is expensive.

[jimh]

Q1: what is the smallest RADAR that Montauk 17 owners have on their boat?

I am not aware of any reliable statistical data about uses of RADAR on a MONTAUK 17 boat. Any reports of MONTAUK 17 boats having installed RADAR will be just anecdotal.

Any advice and recommendation will be greatly appreciated.

My thoughts about installing a RADAR are given below. I think the cost and complexity of installing RADAR must be balanced against the necessity of having it.

Q2: is operating the boat during dense fog absolutely mandatory? I think the answer to that is dependent of the location and the nature of the boating use.

Modern RADAR systems use much less electrical power than older devices. The power of a RADAR is stated in the instantaneous pulse power, which is much higher than the average power consumption. For this reason, electrical power consumption will not be excessive, and as long as the propulsion engine is running and providing battery charging current, I would not expect a problem to occur with excessive electrical power being drawn by the RADAR. A modern RADAR will only consume about 20-Watts of electrical power. That is about the same as your VHF Marine Band DSC Radiotelephone.

RADAR radio waves are truly line-of-sight, so the height of the antenna above the sea is a major factor in the range of the system.

An additional concern is for exposure by humans to the microwave radiation emitted by the RADAR. The RADAR antenna should be located above the height of any boat occupants that may be standing while the RADAR is in operation.

For range and exposure concerns, the RADAR antenna must be mounted at least six feet or higher above the deck level. The weight of the RADAR will dictate how strong the mounting structure needs to be. A typical modern RADAR radome assembly might weight 12 to 15- lbs.

The MSRP cost for many RADAR systems does not include any display device. Generally on a small boat there will not be room for a separate, dedicated RADAR display, and the RADAR data will typically be overlaid onto an existing chart plotter display. For this reason, the CHOICE of which brand and model RADAR will be suitable will depend entirely on the existing chart plotter on the boat.

A further consideration is the display of RADAR echoes will always be oriented to the antenna's orientation, which is always placed to correspond with the boat's heading. In order to properly overlay the RADAR data onto the chart plotter, the boat must have a HEADING SENSOR. The heading sensor permits the overlay of the RADAR echoes to be oriented to the chart presentation.

Modern RADAR systems need NMEA-2000 network connections. If your boat does not already have a NMEA-2000 network, you must add one.

In summary, step one is to investigate your current chart plotter to see if it allows for overlay of RADAR echoes onto the chart display.

Assuming there is a modern RADAR that is compatible with your existing chart plotter, the cost of adding RADAR may be as follows:

• RADAR antenna, $2,500
• mounting structure to hold radome, $2,000 or more
• heading sensor, $500
• NMEA network $150

The total cost may be around $3,000 if you already have a suitable support for a 12- to 15-lbs device six-feet above the deck, or perhaps $5,000 or higher if you need to have a suitable support constructed.

Some additional concerns:

• small 17-foot boats are often kept on trailers and travel on the highway; the wind resistance of the RADAR antenna and its mounting structure must be considered in the design and strength of the structure; as highway speeds will be 60-MPH or more, the turning moment on the radome surface area will be considerable;
• a fixed mounting structure to support a RADAR on a 17-foot boat may prohibit the boat being stored in convenient locations such as a garage due to increased vertical draft; and
• the roll stability of the boat may be affected by the addition of the mounting structure and the relatively heavy antenna mounted atop it.

Anecdotal data about occurrence of dense fog: I have been boating on the Great Lake for 30-years, and in that time I encountered dense fog conditions during which RADAR would have been a useful adjunct for navigation on only two occasions.

[porthole]

I am contemplating installing a RADAR on my Montauk 17... Any advice and recommendation will be greatly appreciated.

Q3: Do you have any multi-function displays on the boat now? If so, I would start with the same brand in your search.

[Moderator's note: this thread was begun over a year ago, and the initiator of the thread has never responded to previous questions or make any follow-up comments on advice already offered.]

I'm a fan of RADAR on small boats, one of those "because I can" things. I have a Simrad HALO 20+ on my current boat. But I am finding limitations on its display of small, close-to-the-water targets, such as unlit aids to navigation and crab pot buoys.

ASIDE: I am seriously considering a Sionyx D1 night vision camera now that is price has declined, and fir a display I will use my Simrad MFD.