Quote:
Originally Posted by MKB53
Hi
I have been doing coastal cruising in Australia for 8 years or so with an AIS transponder hooked into my Nav system and no Radar. I would not like to sail in shipping lanes without AIS but to date I have not missed radar at all and have friends who have the same view. ie: In our neck of the woods Radar is of limited benefit.
I have just signed for a new boat with the intention of cruising in the Med for a few years then possibly coming back to Aus via Panama and the Pacific.
I need to finalise the electronic kit out and the question is whether to fit radar or not. Much easier and cheaper at this stage!
I can imagine that when you get into "3rd world" areas with unlit fishing boats, fish traps and the like it would be a lot of comfort.
I am interested in the views/experiences of cruisers on the need for Radar in the Med specifically but also crossing the Atlantic and Pacific.
Cheers
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Congratulations on the
new boat (what did you choose?)
We were in the same situation four years ago - a new boat delivered to us in the Med. Much
research and many questions later, we went for everything possible except RADAR as we were advised it would not really be used much if at all. We regret that
advice, and given our time again, would include RADAR in the options list. Examples:
1. Crossing to North
Africa from Sardinia, during the night I was acutely aware of the many AIS targets on my
screen, but could not help wondering about any boats out there without AIS, and therefore hoping their nav lights were on, and I saw them.
2. Another day along the North African coast, we
lost GPS position for a good 20 mins. If we had RADAR, I could have manually adjusted the chart overlay to correspond with the RADAR imaging as we went along, therefore giving me some redundancy (yes, I was marking up our paper
charts each hour also, so we had approximate position)
3. Crossing from Pantalleria to Gozo, heavy
fog surrounded us for most of the night, into the dawn. Again, we hoped that everything out there was transmitting AIS data.
4. Looking at yachts and powerboats in the
marinas of
France,
Italy,
Tunisia,
Malta,
Sicily (so far) it is hard to find one without a RADAR scanner.
RADAR is on our list of next to do .....
I suggest from our experiences to date, and the other comments, your decision is made.
Wish you the best with your new adventure - exciting times. Perhaps we will meet over there one year. If you have any further queries regarding your optioning, feel free to ask or PM me. We learnt a lot during our own exercise regarding what to do with a new boat in regards to making it workable and a nice floating home.
David