One of the challenges associated with taking over a used boat is that all of the commissioning – the size and type of sails, the choices with the sail-handling gear, and the installation of the electronics, among myriad other details – reflects the previous owner’s decisions and priorities. Sometimes that’s a good match, but after sailing for a few years we definitely have our own vision for how we like a cruising boat to be set up.
The original radar installation aboard Oso is a good example. At commissioning time, the decision was taken to mount a radar atop a pole at the stern of the boat. It’s a perfectly acceptable place for a radar – high enough above the deck to both offer decent range and to not irradiate the crew when transmitting. And in typical Hallberg-Rassy fashion the mount was well-made, with a stout pole that incorporated a tilting top to compensate for the heeling of the boat, as well as the bonus of a lifting arm to handle an outboard engine.
But our vision for a cruising boat includes long-term energy independence, and in our experience the best way to accomplish that is with solar panels. The enemy of solar panels is anything that casts shade, and a tall, stout radar pole definitely leaves a shadow. So, it’s an easy decision to move the radar to a mount on the front of the mast in order to eventually eliminate or shorten the stern-mounted pole.
While the decision is easy, the implementation is a bit more involved. The front of the mast is already home to a track-mounted spinnaker pole, so the radar mount needs to be installed above that. And since the mast is (hopefully) not coming down anytime soon, all the work needs to be done from a bosun’s chair while hanging from a halyard. At least we’re tied to a well-protected dock in Dartmouth so we don’t have to worry about waves rocking the boat, and there’s a handy chandlery nearby for the various fasteners that are invariably needed. So up the mast Mike goes – first to scout out a location for the mount, then to drill mounting holes, and finally to squeeze the rivets that will hold the mount to the mast.
But of course this is a boat project, so nothing goes exactly as planned. It turns out that our rivet gun is not beefy enough to handle the monel rivets that we need to use. So another trip down the mast and over to the nearby boatyard to beg the loan of a larger rivet gun. Then back up the mast, and the larger rivet gun works perfectly, driving the rivets (covered with Tef-gel to prevent galvanic corrosion) easily. Then with the mast mount in place, it’s a relatively easy job to hoist the radar itself up to the level of the mount by using another halyard, and then to bolt the radar to the mount.
The radar needs power, though, so the final outside step is to run the power cable through the mast. We first attach a bolt to the end of a small messenger line, and then use gravity to drop the bolt to the bottom of the mast. Next, Mike gives a series of small tugs to the messenger line while Angie blindly fishes inside the mast foot through one of the very small cable exit holes. After a few minutes, success! Angie pulls out the bolt and then the messenger line, and we’re able to attach the radar power cable (and a second messenger line, for next time) and pull it down the mast from the radar, out the exit hole, and then below deck through a cable gooseneck.
Maybe it would have been easier to start with a new boat…
