Radar install on mast

[bill pittore]

I was talking to John Salley directly about his experience installing a radar unit on the mast. Thought I would update the group on the result. Using a bosun's chair, foot loops and Petzl ascenders I managed to install a Raymarine Quantum radar unit on a Scanstrut mount. In my mast (hull #77) there is a third conduit that ran from the mast step up the front of the inside of the mast to a hole a foot or so above the nav lights. Using the messenger line that was in the conduit I was able to pull the power cable down to the step. In my bilge there was a messenger line that went up the compression post but I could not find it at the mast step with just that small access hole on the side. I have one of those cheap endoscopic cameras but alas it was at home. So I used a fish tape to run a new messenger line down the post and pulled the power cable into the bilge and connected it to a line I pulled from the panel. We originally tried hoisting the chair up but my wife could not lift me with the winch. The ascenders worked great and the radar is working as well!

Bill

[John Salley (same as before)]

Hey Bill - Fantastic! Glad I could help. I also used ascenders to go up the mast when I installed my radar, as I didn’t have anyone to hoist me, and it worked well. Assume you didn’t have issues drilling the mast and installing the rivets.

John S.

[bill pittore]

Hi John,

 To install the Scanstrut I tied it to the mast with some line and was able to drill two holes and rivet them. That was enough to keep everything steady so I could drill the other holes. I used a new cobalt drill bit which cut through the aluminum pretty quickly. I used this riveter which worked great on the Monel rivets. https://www.amazon.com/Marson-39010-BIG-DADDY-Riveter/dp/B000HAWKTM

The biggest PITA was, as you suspected, getting the fish tape into the compression post from the mast step. That took about 30 minutes. I love the ascenders, it was a piece of cake to go up.

Bill

On Jul 20, 2020, at 5:59 PM, John Salley (same as before) <jnsa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Bill - Fantastic! Glad I could help. I also used ascenders to go up the mast when I installed my radar, as I didn’t have anyone to hoist me, and it worked well. Assume you didn’t have issues drilling the mast and installing the rivets.

John S.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Catalina355 group. To post to this group, send email to catal...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to catalina355...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/catalina355?hl=en

If changing the topic, please start a new message and send to catal...@googlegroups.com, rather than clicking "reply" to an existing message.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Catalina355" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to catalina355...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/catalina355/5264c41b-a69c-40c2-a68b-3aed9fe38135o%40googlegroups.com.