Fitting the radar

When we purchased the chart plotter we agreed a buy-back so that we could upgrade to one with radar at a later date. Today was the later date! Time for the old big ugly non-working JRC radome to be replaced with a new Raymarine radar system.

Getting the old radome down proved easier than I hoped. First, we let Jacob go up the mast to secure a line to the radome and to loosen the threaded rod that was holding the supports. I was concerned that the nuts on the threaded rod might be corroded and so prove extremely difficult to move. Jacob found them to be not much more than finger tight. Which was worrying for different reasons.

Then I went up the mast and knocked the threaded rod through and we dropped the old JRC radome to the deck.

Then we needed to connect the cable to the radome. This is pretty easy to do if you follow the instructions... however Raymarine had not stripped back the screen braid enough which must be in contact with the metalwork of the radome, so we stripped it back further to make good contact.

Next was to fit the new bracket to the mast.

Raymarine have a very easy to fit method for mounting the bracket to the mast: There are four solid clips that you mount to the mast and then the bracket fits into those four clips. The clips are each secured with four pop-rivets. So, what I did first was to bolt the clips to the bracket and take that up the mast and mark and drill the holes on the mast. Then rivet the clips to the mast without the bracket attached.

Then we attached the radome to the bracket and fed the cable down the mast while the new radome was hoisted on a halyard.

Finally I bolted the bracket (with the radome attached) to the clips and it was all secure. Well... not quite finally... I then attached the extra safety strap for the radome.

Then run the cable through to the new chart plotter, connect it up and hey presto we now have radar!

The new chart plotter is slightly bigger than the old one, but looks smart in the panel.  The radar worked first time it was turned on!