"Gene Kearns" wrote in message
...


LD wrote:
After reading through the posts and although I think RADAR is way over
kill
for me, I have a few additional suggestions

Good suggestions, but if there is the potential for the necessity of
transiting narrow and/or busy inlets or other passages in poor
visibility, RADAR is money well spent.

We've never regretted having those "extra eyes."



I agree and am a little surprised that "LD" thinks it's an overkill. Not
only for busy inlets, but for crawling your way back home in pea soup
without running into others that don't have radar or other objects floating
in the water like lobster pot floats with lines that just love to wrap
around your props. I'd agree that if your boating is restricted to
immediate coastlines and inland rivers, the need isn't as great, although
you can still get into trouble if the heavy fog develops. I know I did once
in a 17' center console. I was only 100 yards off shore of Scituate, MA, a
heavy fog developed in a matter of minutes, and I spent an hour trying to
find the harbor channel markers while avoiding submerged and not so
submerged rocks in 4-6 foot breakers. Visibility was about 25 feet. It
wasn't fun.

Another note about fog. It doesn't necessarily "roll in". It can develop
without warning if the temperature, dew point and barometric pressure
combine in the right conditions to produce it. I've seen it go from crystal
clear to pea soup in a matter of minutes, usually when the barometric
pressure suddenly drops quickly due to an approaching front and the water
vapor in the atmosphere condenses.

I am not suggesting that every small boat should have radar, but those
situations *do* occur. If you do a lot of boating and it hasn't happened
yet ..... it will.

You don't need a super, high powered, 60 mile radar to avoid collisions or
running over stuff in the water. I think JVC and others make a reasonably
priced unit with plenty of range.

Radar. Don't leave the dock without it.

Eisboch