Radar Reflector Mounting Hack

I’m not a believer in the efficacy of radar reflectors. Credible studies have shown that most-all do not live up to the claims the manufactures make for them, and some are just plain useless.

Instead, I believe it’s our responsibility in poor visibility to manage close pass situations actively with radar.

That said, making ourselves more visible to others on radar can’t hurt, and further, carrying a reflector is required in Canada.

Also, if we did have a collision in low visibility I’m guessing our position would be less defendable if we did not have a radar reflector up at the time.

But that leaves the problem of how to mount the damned thing.

On the McCurdy and Rhodes 56 we had a Firdell Blipper mounted on the front of the mast, but there was no way in hell I was going to clutter up our J/109 rig that way.

And I really did not want to hoist one on a signal halyard since it would chafe the main when reaching or running.

So what to do?

My first idea was to suspend it on a cat’s cradle of light line between the back stay and the radar stand, but that got ugly quickly, and worse still the reflector would cause a blind spot when the radar scanner was inclined to compensate for heel.

Finally, I came up with a solution that I think will work well, at least for those like us with radars mounted on a pole aft, my preferred option: