Ebb,

How often are you going backwards??? If you are like me, that could be a consideration. <grin> Or are you always looking over your shoulder??

Seriously, the mast does not shadow because the signal return comes back to the antenna quickly, before it has switched to receive. So the mast is effectively invisable. and with the normal installation, any residual shadow would be behind not in front of you. That is also probably true for the pole mounted radar antennas as well, although the shadow is in front with the pole mount.

I have not decided to install radar yet. We do have enough fog here in New England that I am considering it, and I enjoy my wife's company as well. She wants it, and both the price and the size have shrunken in the past few years. The little JRC radome is only 12" in diameter and the Furuno only 18" so the physical mount is straight forward. The cost (as my kids have taken to saying) is 1 1/2 boat units (About $1500).

If I had a choice today, I think I would still vote for a GPS/Plotter. As I tell the my power boating friends, I do 5 knots with a lot of wind, and I do 5 knots with no wind. I just go better upwind with the later conditions. With this, I would at least know where I was and would be in better shape to keep out of shipping lanes etc. in the fog. At 5 knots, closing speed is a lot less than at 20+.

John
Valhalla
Commander No 284