arches?

[soul searcher]

I really would like to put an arch on our boat.
Does any one here have one or have any experiance with them good or bad?

[Alan Wheeler]

Are you talking a radar Arch? On the aftor over the cabin or. A little more info would be of great help. What do you want to place on it and so on. As much info as possible. Thanks.

[soul searcher]

Yes on the stern I want to mount my solar panels wind gen and acouple of anteneas and be able to use it as a dingy davit as well.
right now I have regular davits a motor hoist a pole for the wind gen and the panels are on top of the bimini. its getting really crowded back there. and I dont like the davits they are putting to much strain on my railings thought an arch similar to a Wells Arch would clean it up give me more space( to fish) and be tougher than the set up i have now I cant think of a draw back to them other than a small amount of wieght being raised higher on the boat. but I might be missing something, any thoughts would be apprieciated.

[Alan Wheeler]

No they are light enough not to make any more difference to what you have already. I have a good arch across the aft of mine. It is fantastic. I have aerials, solar panels, spotlights and dingy davits. It gets the inflatable out over the stern and out of the way. The only negative is the radar scanner is mounted there. Dumb idea. I need my scanner up the mast. It's so blind, I may as well have a long white cane out over the bow when in fog.

[windthief]

I took my boat neighbors to the Shelter Island boat yard yesterday to look an example for their boat.
http://cruisersforum.com/photopost/d...CF0001-med.JPG

[Alan Wheeler]

Hey Brad, do I take it that those Davit arms swing? Very cool idea if they do. Must try that.

[windthief]

Oh yea the davit for the outboard swings out to facilitate getting it on board. A totally great idea, the way it folds right to the stantion mount. I assume the owner keeps the dingy on the bow or deflates it for storage.
there are a few more pics in my photo gallery.

[Rick]

I don't get it, one of the nice things about mounting the radar sufficiently aft of the mast on an arch is that one doesn't get much shadowing of the radar image. I've done this with two of my boats and don't have a problem "seeing" right through the mast. Now I don't mean that I get 32 miles on my 32 mile radar like you would 30 feet up.

Like the famous physics slit experiment with light waves, radar waves form interference patterns around the mast and, in essence, "reconstruct" most of the energy of the original (and reflected) wave front to "see" right through the mast. When the radar is smack tight up against the mast you lose the rearward "sight" due the effectively huge mast crossection so close to the transponder.

So, I wonder what's up with yours?

[soul searcher]

Sorry it took so long to get back I'm working on a new work boat in Alabama its out in the midle of a cow pasture no internet Thanks for the pics you just solved my question of weather or not to keep the motor hoist. Thats the best idea Ive seen in a while . my radar is up the tree so its not a problem, If you don't count getting halyards around it I forget its there and try to walk acoss the bow with a halyard in my hand and end up looking like a dog hittin the end of his chain


Matt

ps some one tell me how many pixals in a byte

[Alan Wheeler]

Rick, my problem is height. You are right about the mast. I didn't think of that till you mention it. I find the scanner useless on the arch, but it is only 5ft up. I think I need to put an extension on the scanner mount and get it up higher. Being at the very back of the boat and having 46ft of large Ketch out in front of it, including a Pilot house at it's same level, everything in front is kinda pathetic. Plus to add, insteadof looking "down"on the water.it looks along the surface and is subject to a heck of a lot more return rubbish of the waves.
Then to add into the final mix,itis one of those Furuno LCD units and probably not the best of equipment available.