Posted by Michel Capel (mike_c_f35ck@…>)
Hi Peter, good that you mention this again, because perhaps not all
carbon mast owners are aware of the fact that a carbon fibre mast is
completely invisible on radar!
regards,
Michel
— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, Peter Schäfer
<petersch@…> wrote:
Hi Gerald an Michel,
Recently I found a report on the net concerning the collision of
a Freedom
33/35 Cat Ketch with a 160m long merchant vessel in Australian
waters. The
Freedom had a radar reflector on board but it was not hoisted. The
steamers
radar was never able to detect the Freedom, although they could
see their
navigation light (which was defect and the main reason for the
collision).Boat and crew were very lucky to survive. If you are interested I
can mail
the report to you. I hesitate to put this 30 page pdf into the
files
section.Seems like the carbon spars without stays and shrouds give no echo
at all.
So a good radar reflector is really necessary. Like Gerald I would
prefer an
active Radar Target Enhancer like the Sea-Me or the similar Rasmus
1 mk2
(www.rasmus-marine.de).Compared to the 2+ kg of the EchoMax the Sea-Me weighs only 400 g
and the
Rasmus 500 g. At 70 mA the Rasmus consumes a little less in stand-
by mode
(receiving) than the Sae-Me.Greetings,
Peter