Boat arch

[Jelliott]

I recently purchased and installed a foldable radar arch the company also supplies ready made parts you might be interested in. Check with Tower in a Box, Atlantic Towers, New Jersey.

 

[Cartouche]

Good evening fellow TFers and happy new year to you all, may you be happy, healthy and wealthy.
My boat has a fix arch that makes its air draft about 14 feet. Add to this its draft of about 3 feet and total height is about 17 feet what does not allow me to move it by road (bridge, power lines etc).
Discussing with my wife I was telling her that it would be nice to be able to move the boat to our house in spring so to have it nearby to be able to work on it every day or evening without having to drive 30min to the marina.
So I started to think about cutting the arch and make it foldable. The arch is supporting the radar, anchor light, radar reflector, one vhf antenna, one gps receiver, and the wifi booster antenna so 5 cable.

So here my question: cutting the arch to make it foldable, good or bad idea?

L

think you will find you are still to tall for Canadian Regulations in regard to Height. we are at least a foot shorter than the US. I watched a boat trying to be loaded here at Kingston Marina heading to the states, and the US Broker had Misunderstood the difference and even with shafts rudders and Mast removed boat was still oversize. I believe it is under 14ft

 

[Comodave]

I recently purchased and installed a foldable radar arch the company also supplies ready made parts you might be interested in. Check with Tower in a Box, Atlantic Towers, New Jersey.

I put one of these on a previous boat. It was a very nice product considering it will fit most any boat. I didn’t make mine hinged but it is simple to do when installing the arch. It was less than $2000. So if i were going to be folding the arch on a semi routine basis I think I would remove the original arch completely and install one of these. Then it is easy to fold it down. Also it may be just as cheap as having custom hinges manufactured.

 

[BandB]

Some of you who quickly assume your arches are fiberglass, I'd double check, as thousands of fiberglass boats have aluminum arches and/or hardtops. The SF builders often did that to save weight. For decades Hatteras didn't build their own but had Pipewelders do it.

 

[Lou_tribal]

think you will find you are still to tall for Canadian Regulations in regard to Height. we are at least a foot shorter than the US. I watched a boat trying to be loaded here at Kingston Marina heading to the states, and the US Broker had Misunderstood the difference and even with shafts rudders and Mast removed boat was still oversize. I believe it is under 14ft

Regulation in Quebec is maximum 13 feet 8 inches for height and 8 feet 2 inches for width so without the arch it should be fine on the height but with a 10 feet 8 inches beam it would require a special permit for oversized shipment.

Thank you to bring this on the table.

L

 

[88FuHwa]

Just make sure not to cut the radar cable and try to splice it. I tried that with my Furuno system to no avail and ended up buying and installing a new cable. A real pita.

 

[Sykes]

This is a friend of mine, he does it all the time..

 

[Lou_tribal]

Thank you this gives me some thought.
I am wondering if I could make my hinges in fiberglass, saw that elsewhere this could be an option.

L