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Old 19-07-2017, 08:40   #1
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Radar needed? in Bahamas

Good Morning. I am new member to CF but have been reading the threads for years. I am actually laying out a plan for a 5 month sabbatical from work to take my family sailing (wife and kids 2 & 5 yrs old). I am working on trying to get a feel of what are "necessary" upgrades to my 2011 Dufour 405. or what is a nice to have if our goal is to spend 4-5 months bouncing through the Bahamas.

There are so many useful threads, but i have struggled to get a feel for opinions/thoughts on radar in the Bahamas? For boats that have them do yall use them regularly? or are updated charts elec/paper enough to get buy with a confident/cautious approach to navigating?

I'm weighing all the upgrades I potentially need to do laid out against value/comfort/safety. Most of the other equipment is easy to find opinions but i am struggling to find a thread on this. Any help/direction would be appreciated.

FYI- Located in Kemah, Texas - looking to start the trip in November of 2017.

Thanks - Michael
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Old 19-07-2017, 08:53   #2
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

You do not need a radar in the Bahamas. You really only need a depth sounder, handheld gps and explorer charts.
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Old 19-07-2017, 10:46   #3
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

the real value of radar in the Bahamas is to see the storms and there are a number of them - you can see them and prep - for other ships or land - not really -
but we did consider it very important in see storms.
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Old 19-07-2017, 11:24   #4
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

You need what ever you are comfortable with. I've met cruisers over there that had small boats and less equipment than Columbus. Although their binnacle had larger navigator balls than his.
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Old 19-07-2017, 11:48   #5
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

I don't think I even used my radar once last season in the Bahamas. It's good for checking for squalls. In 27 years I've only seen fog once there and it was while crossing the Great Bahama Bank. I joke that on that occasion I could see further straight down than ahead!
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Old 19-07-2017, 13:09   #6
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

While you don't need it, if you don't have an AIS receiver it's useful for crossing the gulf stream. AIS is definitely simpler to use when dodging the freighters and cruise ships on the crossing but radar will work. If you don't have an AIS transmitter make sure you get a radar reflector so the big guys can see you. Our plastic boats don't give off much of a radar return without one.

I don't really use radar in the daytime in the Bahamas but it is pretty useful at night. It is quite common for Bahamian fishing boats to be running at night on the banks with no lights and they tend to use the same routes between Islands as cruisers. It's nice to have a little warning when one is coming at you. Many people won't travel at night in the Bahamas but winter days are short and some passages take longer than available daylight.

The explorer charts or electronic charts based on the explorer charts will pretty much take care of your chart needs. The only gotcha is that so many people use the suggested routes. It's not unusual to have someone coming the opposite direction on autopilot. The problem being that the gps based track following is so accurate it tends to increase the danger of a collision.

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Old 19-07-2017, 13:17   #7
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

We've used radar in the Bahamas to offset the charts on the plotter to match the actual coastline of many small, and not so small, cays. Overlay the radar image onto the chart and then offset the chart to match the radar image.
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Old 20-07-2017, 06:50   #8
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

Thank you all for the responses from both sides of the isle. Feel like radar is one of those things i don't miss cause i have never had one set up. The responses are helpful to understand its value once out in "real show". From an office on land it is difficult to project!
Thanks again!
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Old 20-07-2017, 07:05   #9
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

I never turned on my radar when in the Bahamas (or in the the gulfstream crossing to/from it)
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Old 20-07-2017, 08:05   #10
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

No fog. No RADAR needed.

AIS is a priority.

I used my AIS to watch where the commercial traffic went then plotted their tracks as routes. If they didn't run aground I couldn't ☺️
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Old 20-07-2017, 09:03   #11
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

I'm with Capt Bill. Not absolutely necessary but - if no night travel expected it is not needed. However I just came back from a nighttime crossing between Ft. pierce and Spanish Cay and found my radar very useful to safely get around several vessels - on just East of the Gulf Stream and a pair of sailboats on the bank making a night crossing going the other way. also I used it to find a couple of "holes" between heavy storms one day when returning from Spanish Cay to West End.
I could have done the daytime travel without the radar but would not do the night time travel with out one and then only on certain "wide open" course lines.
Been doing the Florida to Bahamas thing since the 1960's starting out with only dead reckoning and depth finder and compass and charts to now using GPS, chart plotter, etc - wouldn't go back to the old ways - now so much easier and pleasurable.
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Old 20-07-2017, 09:15   #12
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

I'd say it depends on whether you plan to be on the move at night. I'd never sail in the dark without it.
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Old 20-07-2017, 10:07   #13
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

I agree with those who say at night is radars real value.. I first really used to learn radar patrolling San Francisco bay at night in Coast Guard 41'..

I sure missed not having it when I moved a Hunter 26.5 from Kemah to Port Aransas.. I came in around midnight and I sure would have loved to have been able to validate it was clear.. Something you wouldn't give much though in the day can be a pucker factor at night..

Happy sailing with the family.. Hope you have a wonderful time.. flk k
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Old 20-07-2017, 10:19   #14
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

It definitely helps to have it, fog, or no. As it works in most other situations where optical visibility ranges from limited to none. And unlike say AIS, it tells you what is actually out there & what isn't, including it's real world position, not where your plotter says it "supposedly" is. For example you can have buoys which either don't have AIS, or their AIS is DOA, & they've drifted out of place relative to their charted position. Radar will tell you this. Other electronic nav aids won't.

Radar can also be used to warn you when you're getting too close to something, or something's getting too close to you, by virtue of it's guard settings. So often it's an extra watch stander, one who rarely, if ever, takes a break. This is true even at anchor, should you choose to use it then.

Or consider coming into waters with more restricted manueverability, or an anchorage after dark. Odds are Radar will give you the best real world pic of what's where. Well, other than perhaps a FLIR system costing as much as a new SUV. And the FLIR's range would be much more limited.

There have even been plenty of times when radar allowed me to easily thread my way through fields of crab pot floats after dark, & or, in thick fog. Not that I'd advise doing so in close quarters, but if you must, radar surely helps with it when not much else may.

And bottom line, any wise navigator wants as many ways to confirm his position, & those of other ships & nav aids, as he can get. Doubly, or trebly so after dark, or out past distances which are optically viewable.
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Old 20-07-2017, 10:31   #15
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Re: Radar needed? in Bahamas

Quote:
Originally Posted by mike184858 View Post
Good Morning. I am new member to CF but have been reading the threads for years. I am actually laying out a plan for a 5 month sabbatical from work to take my family sailing (wife and kids 2 & 5 yrs old). I am working on trying to get a feel of what are "necessary" upgrades to my 2011 Dufour 405. or what is a nice to have if our goal is to spend 4-5 months bouncing through the Bahamas.

There are so many useful threads, but i have struggled to get a feel for opinions/thoughts on radar in the Bahamas? For boats that have them do yall use them regularly? or are updated charts elec/paper enough to get buy with a confident/cautious approach to navigating?

I'm weighing all the upgrades I potentially need to do laid out against value/comfort/safety. Most of the other equipment is easy to find opinions but i am struggling to find a thread on this. Any help/direction would be appreciated.

FYI- Located in Kemah, Texas - looking to start the trip in November of 2017.

Thanks - Michael
Radar would be cool to thread your way thru the oil platforms and workboats you must go thru in Gulf of Mexico---plus its also great to avoid thunderstorms
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