Visit our Popular Forums

**Boracay** · 19-08-2008, 18:40

I'm currently building davits/radar mount/wind generator mount/ antenna mounts and I'm wondering how high I should make the wind generator mounting points.

Too high and they're hard to maintain and will stress the pole. Too low and they might take my head off...

Anyone have any experience?

Also, anyone any idea on how high to make the radar mounting points and how high the dinghy needs to be off the water when in the davits?

Chief Engineer · 19-08-2008, 19:00

I am of the opinion that way too many sailboats mount way too much stuff on the stern.

I have seen some monstosities of welded tubing on the stern of vessels.

I have always wondered what an overtaking wave would do to them.

cptnandy · 19-08-2008, 19:05

dont even think about a long trip with the dingy in davits. Put it on the deck, upside down. Davits a great for short hall trips say cruising around the BVI's but across an ocean... too much windage and it could fill with water in bad weather; also chafe on both the tubes/gunwhale and tackle on an ocean crossing would be very bad for the dink.

**Pblais** · 19-08-2008, 19:08

Quote:

Anyone have any experience?

Any body part encounters with a windgen blade is usually bloody ugly. Between the leading edge and the blunt force it's darn nasty. You want it high enough so you can't accidentally get too close. We had a 4 Winds two blade with metal blades. Our stern mounted windgen mast was not more than about 5 feet and it sat on a plate attached to the top of the stern rail. It also had a diagonal SS 1 inch tube to help support the mast. The blades came below the top of the bimini but high enough you could not be sitting and reach up and touch it.

Davits can't really be too high since a following sea can strip off the dinghy in an instant. No davit can handle a wave or perhaps more accurate no boat can. If you also need to mount the radar on the stern then the two heights work out to be about the same. The radar does not require as much support.

cptnandy · 19-08-2008, 19:08

wind generator should be mounted high enough so that you cant accidentalyy stick your fingers into the blades... this will save you a bit of blood and some fingers!

svcattales · 19-08-2008, 19:08

I had an arch built to mount my radar, wind gen, solar panel etc. Since the arch was slightly taller than my head, I had a pole added to one side of the arch for both the radar and the wind gen. The wind gen is on top of the pole and radar is below it.

To figure out height of the pole, I broke one of my cardinal rules and read the instructions on the radar. Radomes have a sweep that angles down below horizontal and you don't want the radar "taking pictures" of your body every sweep. Since my helm position is about 8ft forward of the radar pole, I used the downward angle in the radar instructions to estimate the height I needed to avoid X-raying my noggin. Once I had the height of the radar, I put the wind gen above it with enough height to avoid interference with the radome. This put the wind gen about 16ft above deck level. The higher you get the wind gen will also improve its output.

You also have to think about weight aloft and how well it is supported. Our welder used schedule 80 pipe for the pole and added support legs in 2 directions. See pic below.