Not at all. Might be true on a lighter weight hull but it had no effect on
Se Fjern at 26' and even less on Se Lange at 31'. As I've learned height
is everything. The radars placed low down or on short poles are useful for
harbor entrances and the like, not so useful on open ocean situations. In
this case I have 'weight below to spare. Windage increase would be even more
of an issue but even that is negligible. I added radar to begin with
because of conditions up here in the Pacific NW. Lots of fog during the
best of the summer sailing system is not uncommon. With the original 12"
radome I found life a lot easier. On the trans-Pac I set the guard system
and it would come on every 15 minutes, do 20 turns and alert me if some
target showed. Like an auto-tilller it's an extra crew member. Down low
it's in the troughs too much and tends to beep off on signals from the tops
of swells and waves. Reduce the seas state sensitivity and it degrades
performance in areas needed. By adding height you make it a useful tool.
With the original radar I refined the settings based on actual targets. The
new one is 18" array and works even better. What I would NOT do is put up a
three or four foot array on a smaller hull. That would upset balance and be
a windage issue. The only thing new this time is a swinging type radar
mount.

A neat thing about my present job is the ability to use radar constantly.
While I don't have the bells and whistles of the big 10cm and 3cm Sperry's I
am very comfortable with the use of radar. It's one of the most useful
support tools out there.

But as with GPS I still rely on the basics. The Mark I, Mod 1 Eyeball
System is to radar as good navigation is to the GPS.

M.



"katysails" wrote in message
...
Michael noted: The setup allows space to put the radar up high

You're sticking your radar on the mast? tsk tsk...there goes your
balance....

--
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein