Didn't Gordon West recently publish the results of an informal experiment where
his only ground was simply a short wire hung off the boat touching salt water,
(not a long length dragged behind the boat)? As I recall, against all common
wisdom, it worked great. The article called into question the need for big
surface areas of grounding material if in salt water. It implied that simply
grounding to a metallic through hull might do the job. I know we still have the
issues of coupler and antenna location, feedline, etc.