On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 19:00:57 -0500, Larry wrote:

As to mounting it, there's a trade. You are a sailboat so nothing
happens very fast. 15 mile range is overkill at 8 knots as you won't be
there for 2 hours, yet. If you mount it high up, you get excellent
range. Sounds good, eh? Unfortunately, high up also has a tradeoff in
how CLOSE to the boat you can see that big, heavy, CG bouy in the
whiteout fog bank. High up, the radar's beam goes OVER the top of low-
down items, like bouys, and the closer they are, the worse they display.

================================================== ===

I disagree with this premise based on my own experience. I have a 2
KW Furuno mounted 24 feet above the water. It has absolutely no
problem seeing near by targets, right down to the limitation of the
electronics which is about 50 feet. We were out the other day and it
picked up a duck sitting on the water about 100 feet in front of us.

As far as a sailboat not needing anything past 15 miles because of
slow speed, that is a dangerous assumption. A commercial ship
traveling at a typical offshore speed of 20 kts is moving 1 nautical
mile every 3 minutes. If you are converging from opposite directions
at 8 knots, even faster. I like all the warning time I can get, and
being able to pick up distant shore features is desirable also.

Wayne,
50 feet? I don't think so. Check the transmitter specs and do the math.
Lamda = 3.18 u sec per mile, one way.
Steve


"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 19:00:57 -0500, Larry wrote:

As to mounting it, there's a trade. You are a sailboat so nothing
happens very fast. 15 mile range is overkill at 8 knots as you won't be
there for 2 hours, yet. If you mount it high up, you get excellent
range. Sounds good, eh? Unfortunately, high up also has a tradeoff in
how CLOSE to the boat you can see that big, heavy, CG bouy in the
whiteout fog bank. High up, the radar's beam goes OVER the top of low-
down items, like bouys, and the closer they are, the worse they display.

================================================== ===

I disagree with this premise based on my own experience. I have a 2
KW Furuno mounted 24 feet above the water. It has absolutely no
problem seeing near by targets, right down to the limitation of the
electronics which is about 50 feet. We were out the other day and it
picked up a duck sitting on the water about 100 feet in front of us.

As far as a sailboat not needing anything past 15 miles because of
slow speed, that is a dangerous assumption. A commercial ship
traveling at a typical offshore speed of 20 kts is moving 1 nautical
mile every 3 minutes. If you are converging from opposite directions
at 8 knots, even faster. I like all the warning time I can get, and
being able to pick up distant shore features is desirable also.

I was perusing the Yamaha online parts catalog and found the
following:

http://tinyurl.com/an2q6

"All these models use the same part catalog. Be sure to
order only those parts applicable to the desired model.

9.9 MSH (63V5 - Yamaha part code)
15 MSH (63W5 " )

The only difference between the 2 stroke 9.9 and 15 models
that I found was the intake reed valve assembly. They have
different part numbers. Everything else that I checked was
the exact same part number.


Here's the link to the two different parts catalogs (see
"Intake" for the reed valve assembly, one identifed with 63V
and the other with 63W.

http://tinyurl.com/7lpth for the 15 HP

http://tinyurl.com/aaahk for the 9.9 HP


Both have the same carb, pistons, and anything else I could
think of. I have always heard that there is usually little
difference between 9.9 and 15's; 6 & 8's etc. but I was a
little bemused to find that such a simple swap could
potentially save me a lot of cash by buying a 9.9 and a 15's
$41 reed valve assembly. Could it be that simple? There's
about a $400 difference in the retail price by the way.


What I *really* want is a Yamaha 15 ENDURO, but they aren't
found in Canada or the US. If anybody has a line on one in
Mexico or the Bahamas and some suggestions on getting it
into Canada or the US, let me know.

Evan Gatehouse