drewpster
Commander
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2006
- Messages
- 2,059
I was considering placement of my VHF and satellite antennas today and I cooked up an idea. As is usual with my ideas it will probably take way too much work and be far more complicated than it needs to be, but here goes.
The canopy on my little cruiser is a hard top. It is constructed of wood and is quite solid. I was toying with the idea of building a small antenna mast on which to mount my VHF and sat antennas and an anchor light.
Now the simple thing would be to mount them to the canopy and be done with it. But you know me I have to make it look my way.
The question is what would be the best way to build it. Mine is an older boat so I would like to be in keeping with earlier designs. I have seen older cruisers and commercial boats with antenna masts made of finished hardwood. They look great but I would rather go with a more modern approach. I am not familiar with making or working with fiberglass molds. However I am familiar with using balsa and laminating with epoxy from my old RC airplane days. I was thinking of building it using plywood as a backbone and to make the platforms. Then use balsa or construction foam to use as a cores to shape the profile. Then cover the whole thing with epoxy and fiber cloth. Finally finishing it with paint.
I am not planning to build a very large mast. Perhaps two feet tall at most. The most stress would come from the VHF antenna. However I can limit that by using a shorter one. Any thoughts or considerations?
The canopy on my little cruiser is a hard top. It is constructed of wood and is quite solid. I was toying with the idea of building a small antenna mast on which to mount my VHF and sat antennas and an anchor light.
Now the simple thing would be to mount them to the canopy and be done with it. But you know me I have to make it look my way.
The question is what would be the best way to build it. Mine is an older boat so I would like to be in keeping with earlier designs. I have seen older cruisers and commercial boats with antenna masts made of finished hardwood. They look great but I would rather go with a more modern approach. I am not familiar with making or working with fiberglass molds. However I am familiar with using balsa and laminating with epoxy from my old RC airplane days. I was thinking of building it using plywood as a backbone and to make the platforms. Then use balsa or construction foam to use as a cores to shape the profile. Then cover the whole thing with epoxy and fiber cloth. Finally finishing it with paint.
I am not planning to build a very large mast. Perhaps two feet tall at most. The most stress would come from the VHF antenna. However I can limit that by using a shorter one. Any thoughts or considerations?
