I have to concur with Paul's comment about the arch. Sometimes they just overpower the lines of the boat.
I have an aluminum (powder-coated white) radar tower mounted in the center of my flybridge just aft of the bench seat at the wheel (36 Sedan). The tower folds down, which is handy as I keep my boat in a covered moorage and it prevents the radar transmitter from being bashed against the roof of the marina when we get the occasional storm that bounces the boats around. My next-door neighbor has a 40-foot Sea Ray that demolished its transmitter on the roof earlier this winter, and to add insult to injury, he got a bill from the marina for repairing the damage to the roof. The tower, when folded down, also makes a dandy support for the bridge cover so water runs off the bridge when I'm at anchor and it's raining. The only down side to the tower is that you have to through-bolt it through the flybridge roof and use a backing plate in the roof of your salon. A meticulous installation would involve the temporary removal of part of the headliner in the salon, then mounting the tower and backing plate (with plenty of sealant), and re-installation of the headliner, but whoever installed it on my boat was not that meticulous. However, since the backing plate is also powder-coated white, it's not too obtrusive. Here's a link to a photo that shows most of the tower (when I bought the boat - it's not this messy now :^) http://images.markmoburg.multiply.com/image/25/photos/10/600x600/3/Flybridge2.jpg?et=5C5GEd2hRma5eCsVbzQZzQ&nmid=58564680 This photo kind of shows the tower as it appears from a distance: http://images.markmoburg.multiply.com/image/24/photos/10/600x600/15/Starboard-bow.jpg?et=lJnROjEILhSS6i94aQi25A&nmid=58564680 In addition, my boat has a double-pole switch in the engine compartment that completely shuts off power to the entire radar unit. Being double-pole, it cuts off both power and ground. Although the unit has a switch on the transceiver array base that stops the drive motor, having the separate cutoff switch for the radar power prevents brain farts like forgetting to turn off the drive motor switch when folding the tower down, then later switching on the unit and having the rotating array bash itself to pieces against the tower. Also, on this older Raytheon unit, even if the drive motor switch is off but someone turns on the power switch at the display head, the array will still transmit. I like the safety aspect of being able to positively cut out any chance of microwave transmission while people are on the bridge. I value my sex life too much. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/UnifliteWorld?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
