Oh, and no need to replace the
VHF antenna if there's nothing wrong with the one that's there, in
my opinion. If you do feel the need, you might wish to consider transom-mounting a somewhat larger, high-performance fiberglass antenna, instead. The owner of the boat we're buying did that. When I questioned it, he replied "Well, my thinking was if the antenna's on the mast, and the mast comes down..." "Oh," I repied, "I'd never considered that."
OTOH: A transom-mounted antenna, no matter how high-performance, may not have the range of that tiny little whip antenna you commonly see atop masts. (For
VHF range,
line-of-sight is king.) At least when the mast is up
Jim