Radar Necessity

Hello "Great Lakes" Sailors,

I am trying to decide whether having radar on my sailboat will really be necessary considering the area that I sail in. I currently sail Lake Huron on the weekends and Georgian Bay and the North Channel for holidays in July. To this point I have not seen a necessity to have radar as boat traffic is minimal and we monitor the weather channel/mafor etc very closely and only travel when there is good weather window. I will be retiring next year and the plan is to sail Georgian Bay and all areas of the North Channel for 5-6 weeks. At some point we may head south through Lake St. Clair into Lake Erie. Other cruisers I have talked with who have radar tell me it is great for rain squalls but they still can avoid them other than get ready for them. I figure it will cost me $5000 CAD by the time I buy a radome, multifunction display, stern pole mount and installion.

I am really sitting on the fence post with this decision and would appreciate and thoughts or words of wisdom from fellow sailors who have radar and sail this area.

Paul

CS30 "Life Is Good"