Last month we pulled the mast off the boat. We did this for a number of reasons. One of those reasons according to random passerby/dock neighbor is we; and I quote “Hate sailing”. Thanks person I hardly know for rubbing that little turd in my face. :)
The other reasons for pulling the mast was to replace a lot of old and aging equipment and hardware.
Specifics? You want them? You got them:
Replaced the old spreader lights with nice super bright LEDs from Dr. LED. More specifically, these: Kevin Spreader lights
Replaced the old VHF antenna with a new Shakespeare Low-Profile AIS Whip Antenna
It claims to be AIS enhanced…..not sure if that matters, but I guess it cannot hurt.
We are also replacing all the Halyards and standing rigging.
But the main, number one reason we pulled the mast was to replace our aging radar and navigation system. Up until now we had a Furuno radar and the Nav system was one of my old laptops connected to a hand held Garmin eTrex GPS
We will still have a laptop as a back up, and paper charts as well. But, our main Nav solution is a Simrad NSE8
And this is the super sexy radar:
Pretty sure the 3G is just some marketing bullshit, but it is instant on. Low power usage, and the broadband radar is super freakin detailed. I might actually use my radar now for something other than sizzling my nuts with radiation….i’m pretty sure that’s how radar works….sorta.
We also put a Maretron WSO100 for wind and temp mounted on top of the mast:
We have not have a reliable working wind indicator or knot meter on Palarran for 2 or 3 years now. I am stoked.
I’m also rebuilding/modifing my tri-light/anchor light. And installing a mount so I can install a wifi antenna on the spreaders. But those two will be separate post.
That is not all we are doing. We also redid how our windlass was (incorrectly) mounted. And pulling the compression post so we can tear out an old leaking fresh water tank. That little side project resulted in us finding out the compression post may be compromised and need to be replaced.
In short, the entire post could be boiled down to: $$$KAFUCKINGCHING$$$ and a kick to the bank account.