The Lowrance Broadband 3G scanner weighs only sixteen pounds, so it is easy to handle for installation and removal when stepping and unstopping the mast.


north.”


“I didn’t even hear you go by.” “I’m going to blow the fog horn


every 15 seconds,” I said. “Tell me from what direction you hear the horn.” So, that’s what we did. I blew the fog horn and Becky told me where she


thought I was in relation to the dock. By some miracle I found my way to her — the fog was so dense that I never saw the dock until it was within a boat length.


That was enough to convince us that we needed radar.


Choosing Components With today’s technology radar is no


longer just for large boats. Even small boats like our 26-foot trailerable sloop


For a small boat, the HDS-7 is a perfect choice, fitting nicely on the helm pedestal, and giving us an electronic view of the world around us.


can now have the advantage of radar to aid with navigation and collision avoidance. The system we bought is a Lowrance Broadband 3G™ Radar scanner and the companion HDS-7 display with integrated chartplotter, depth sounder and GPS. With the new broadband


technology, there is no Magnetron creating microwave radiation — this system is all solid state with no warm- up time required. And the transmitter emissions are so low (less than a cell phone) that it isn’t necessary to maintain a lot of standoff above head level. That gave us options, so we considered two installation possibilities — a stern-mounted pole, or a radar arch. But custom fabricating those mounting systems would cost between $1200 - $1700, which made our budget wheeze. So we took a look at a much more affordable standard mast mount. The dilemma with this arrangement for a trailerable sailboat is that we raise and lower the mast a lot, and we didn’t want a cumbersome radar scanner complicating that operation. What to do?


In the end, we bought a Seaview Radial Rewind UniPower


SM-18-R mast platform that retails for $290 and accepted the fact that we’ll need to spend an extra 10 minutes each time we raise or lower the mast to install or remove the scanner. For convenience, I positioned the platform


48° NORTH, JANUARY 2012 PAGE 54


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