24
DOUGAL
on tour
ALL AT SEA NOVEMBER 2021
Solent based dinghy sailor David Henshall is a well known writer and speaker on topics covering the rich heritage of all aspects of leisure boating.
Raymarine Cyclone From Raymarine comes Cyclone™, the newest range of open array radars, and so we investigate the benefits it will bring to leisure boaters…
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“Their new Cyclone package offers the very best in signal processing, so that the information presented to the user is not just informative, but clearly understandable.”
ecently Dougal on Tour has given us an interesting insight into the development and practical application of modern navigational aids. From VHF radio, then advanced depth sounders to GPS driven chartplotters, even fairly small and modest pleasure boats can now be equipped with an amazing array of help for the casual sailor or motorboater. There is, though, one further high-tech piece of kit that has now come down in price to the point that it too is no longer just for the benefit of super yachts. All the other equipment featured so far tells the boat owner where he is, where he is heading and how deep the water is, but it tells little of what is going on around them. The answer to this is radar, but even though packages offering a fully functional radar system are now available on a competitive basis, this is the one bit of kit that requires the greatest input from the sailor.
Interpretation problems
Anyone who has used radar in a small boat and in a ‘busy’ location will know that although the screen delivers a huge amount of information, interpreting this can be serious challenge. It is very difficult to understand what is going on, even with the time and circumstances to take a long, careful look at the screen. There is more than an element of truth in the apocryphal tales of boats running into obstructions because the helm was focused on his radar screen, let alone the highly skilled navigators on fully crewed warships who insist a vessel ahead move out of their way, despite the radar echo coming from a lighthouse! The problem gets worse, as in the conditions when a sailor needs radar the most, are at the same time when he needs to be giving the maximum concentration to what is going on around him.
Raymarine’s Cyclone
Help is at hand with the launch of the latest solid state open array radar from Raymarine. Their new Cyclone package offers the very best in signal processing, so that the information presented to the user is not just informative, but clearly understandable.
around them. The external element of the Cyclone radar has also been given a great deal of thought as it stands little more than a foot high and comes in either a 3, 4 or 6ft antenna size.
Power consumption
Using their CHIRP pulse compression and doppler target tracking, the task of working out which of the echoes shown on the screen need immediate attention is now a lot easier, whilst the clarity of the images allows for a quicker assessment of the overall situation. One of the particularly useful advances with Cyclone is that it removes the earlier bugbear of the near/far
conflict. Earlier radar systems needed to be set for a target range, as the overall operation of radar changes as you seek either very high resolution of close contacts, or a more general awareness of things that are further out towards the horizon. The user had to be aware of what range setting he was on, which was yet another task that could be mistaken or overlooked.
Now, the advanced processing in the Cyclone unit allows the same operational settings to do both, resulting in clear images for contacts in both the near and far fields. Not only can the Raymarine system detect contacts within the radar coverage, it can track up to 50 individual targets, with clear to see colour differentiators to again make it easy for the user to see what is happening
Yet another piece of electronic kit on board does mean more power consumption, but with a loading of only 28w when in standby and 170w when in maximum use, the standard Cyclone will not require a major rethink of the on board power budget. Even the top-of-therange Cyclone Pro, which has an outer range scale of 96nm, still draws less than 200w when in full operation. The practical applications for the new Raymarine Cyclone packages are as clear as their display screens, for the ease of use will be a boon to leisure sailors under sail or power. More importantly, on those occasions where the control of the boat is short handed or operating at speed (even more so when ‘both of the above’), giving the user an easily understandable presentation of what is around him will make using radar - and thus being afloat - not just more enjoyable, but safer too.
