Homebrew Arches and Posts?

[SaltyMonkey]

When I shop around to try and come up with a budget for a radar arch or post to strap my electronic toys to (radar, solar panels, wind generator, GPS's antennas, weather stuff and the like), seems to me I can't get away from the fact that a new one would require a custom made order costing thousands of dollars.

I have some ideas how to get around this hastle and do it cheaply myself, but I'm really curious on how some other more resourceful cruisers got around this issue and built their own or got it supplied. How'd you do it, and where do you hang all this stuff on your boat?

So, please feel free to impress us with you skills and knowledge.

[klem]

I have welded up a few mounts for radar and wind generators. My current boat has a wind generator on top of the mizzen which I welded up out of aluminum. It is pretty simple, a piece of schedule 40 pipe welded to a piece of rectangular tube that has the bottom cut off to make it fit over the masthead with a few gussets. The hardest part was figuring out how to attach it to the masthead. That is why I ended up with the U shaped tube with horizontal bolts.

Making a radar post is pretty easily done out of two pieces of flat plate, a pole and some appropriately sized gussets. All you need is a flat place at deck level to bolt to.

My uncle had a really clever solution for their radar which was to build a mount that hooked to their spinnaker pole track. This wouldn't be a great permanent solution but is great for someone who occasionally runs radar and doesn't fly a spinnaker a lot.

If you really want to mount up all the things that you have listed, it will have to be a pretty hefty arch on the stern. Unless you can build it yourself, it will be expensive.

[SaltyMonkey]

nice klem. Good stuff. thanks for your reply!

[barnakiel]

All sorts of supports can be manufactured onboard. Welded, if you weld. With awning fittings, if you do not.

b.