http://www.raymarine.com/raymarine/P...roduct _id=30

Take a look at the SL72 small boat radars from Raymarine. The SL72RC
adds the chart system to the radar when you add a Raymarine WAAS-GPS
receiver, which is built right into the little GPS antenna and puts
out data to the radar without the extra box. (Raystar 120). Be
careful not to click a waypoint on a bouy or you'll run right over it.
You can add the Raymarine digital sounder now or later. The neat
thing about all this is the radar is already setup to synchronize and
overlay the chart, sonar data, radar video, etc., all on one neat
display. Raymarine has a new gyro-compass to replace their older
compass sensor, which also gives you gyro-accurate rate of turn data
to the compass sensor. I've just installed that to a new installation
aboard a friend's Amel 41 ketch. He has the larger SL70RC color
display, which is nice/pretty/etc., but functionally identical except
for color and price. We're using the 24 mile 2KW radome, too. 24
miles is forever in a sailboat.

From the top of a 24' cabin roof, I'd expect about 8-10 mile range to
boats sticking out of the water, and maybe 15 miles to a ship or
tower, because your natural horizon is about that far. It would give
you plenty of range for the fog problem. The nice thing about a LOWER
antenna is that it can see targets much closer to the boat, like that
bouy you're trying to run over, without the radar shooting over the
near target that doesn't stick way up. I had the radar mounted on a
15' radar "pipe" installation on the stern of my friend's previous
Endeavour 35 sloop and the little Raymarine 2KW 18" radome could
clearly see boats as close as 5 slips away from us in the marina,
clearly showing the outline of the docks all the way across the
marina. That low down, it didn't paint the 55' bridge we sail under,
but clearly showed the position of the bridge supports into the water,
where it counts. Motoring through the gauntlet of anchored-out boats,
marina docks and bridges in heavy fog would be quite easy until you
needed to see your target slip inside the radar's minimum range, which
is limited by the time the radar transmitter's output is on the air,
the "pulse width", which in a Raymarine on 1/8th mile range is VERY
narrow, giving you amazing resolution.

The gyro-compass output even lets you see which direction your boat is
pointed, right on the radar's overlay display, with the boat standing
dead still. The WAAS compensated GPS works great as an anchor alarm
anchored out, too. The chart plotter/GPS/gyrocompass works without
the radar transmitting. If you have traffic near where your anchorage
is, you can leave the whole thing running with the radar's computer
watching out for the traffic from your anchorage, alarming when a
moving target gets inside your alarm's setting and warning you of any
crash courses, whether you are moving or not.

Works great!



On Mon, 01 Sep 2003 15:09:00 GMT, "Wheres the sun?"
wrote:

I own a 24' Chapparal Signature Series cruiser and enjoy weekend trips from
Boston down the coast to Cape Cod.

A few weeks ago I found myself caught in the worst fog I have ever
encountered, right down to the water, I could barely make out my pulpit.
Thank god for my Garmin 232 GPS to make it home. My fingernails were dug
deeply into the steering wheel as we continously listened to the Harbor
Cruise ships' horns alerting us of their presence, we finally made it back
in one piece.

Can someone recommend a decent radar system for my boat. I do not have an
arch so installation tips would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance!



Larry

Extremely intelligent life must exist in the universe.
You can tell because they never tried to contact us.