Yeah, my pvc pole antenna contraption was on a
ketch rigged
boat.....the mizzen had no
backstays.
My main had double
backstays, but they ran real close to the mizzen shrouds, missed them by only 2" or so. I was concerned this might confuse the tuner, or the radiation pattern of the antenna, so I nixed the backstay idea. This lead to the pvc pole lashed to my stern pulpit idea. It worked like a champ. Never ever had a problem with it and was able to send and receive pretty much everywhere I went.
At one time, I extended my wire antenna from the top of the mizzen
mast to the top of the main
mast, thinking the added length would help propagation, but this angle between the two masts was too flat to have much use, so I took it off.
But getting back to
Aruba. I'm sure that
Aruba will have a ham club or active hams, so it might be worth it to see if some local hams can be found. You never know, they might have a whip laying around somewhere or know where one could be found.
I did see a
boat once that had a wire topping
lift rigged with insulators on each end. When the owner wanted to use the
radio, he ran a GTO wire to the bottom of the topping
lift from a tuner located under a
cockpit seat. He told me it worked fine. A bit inconvenient at times, but worked for his purposes.
In the " old days" I would sometimes see a variety of homemade antenna's on sailboats, so there are other options. Probably wouldn't look good on a cat though.
The few times I've come across a whip antenna on a sailboat, it seemed that the upper part of the antenna is constantly in motion. Even a slight rocking at
anchor is enough to to have it swaying around like a drunken sailor.
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