Making an Iridium GO Aerial Bracket
Somewhere on every boat’s list is a job that looks simple, turns out not to be, and drags on for months anyway. This was one of those. Getting the Iridium GO’s aerial mounted and working meant, first, admitting a seven-dollar plastic fitting wasn’t going to cut it — wrong part, wrong approach, straight in the bin — and starting over properly.
After looking at a few spots, the pushpit won out as the best location. But the mounting bracket wasn’t the only problem: where the cable actually enters the stainless steel tube, there’s a sizeable hole, and leaving that exposed to salt air wasn’t an option. The fix was to build a small carbon fibreglass combing that hides the cable and connector completely, keeping the whole entry point sealed from the elements.
Building the mould
This one’s a quick, improvised approach to custom bracketry — a splash mould, built on the fly. A block of foam got roughly shaped and sanded to the geometry needed, then wrapped in Teflon release tape so nothing would bond to it permanently. That foam former sits inside a carbon plate cut to fit the pushpit, laminated in place — bonded to the carbon bracket, but not to the foam underneath, which pulls free afterward and leaves a clean cavity behind for the coax cable to run through.
Working conditions weren’t ideal — a stretch of days stuck at anchor waiting on solar panels that hadn’t turned up yet, weather windows shut, nowhere to sail — which at least meant time to get the lamination done properly. One frustration worth mentioning for anyone doing this kind of work right now: proper gloves were next to impossible to source, leaving nothing but flimsy vinyl ones that threatened to split mid-job.
Trimming, fitting, and securing it
Once demoulded, the carbon combing popped free of the foam former cleanly — genuinely satisfying when a splash mould actually works the way it’s supposed to. From there it was a matter of trimming to fit, opening up the old stern light wiring hole to run the coax cable and plug through, and dealing with a bit of jiggle in the fit. The final fix for that was simple: drill and tap two securing screws into the top handrail, which locked the whole thing solid with barely a hint of movement left.
Finishing and fitting the aerial
After trimming and a dry fit to check clearance around the cable and connector, it was filler, then primer, then paint — several thin coats of a slow-drying white that needed real patience to lay down flat. Small part, though, which made it manageable to bring inside, run a heater on it, and get two coats a day instead of one.
The finished bracket came out solid, with the cable completely hidden inside — exactly the result the whole job was aiming for. A few final touches: sealing old, unrelated screw holes left in the stanchion from a previous owner’s stern light install, and creating a proper gasket between the aerial and the bracket itself — one side lubricated, the other glued with a thin bead of sealant, snugged down lightly at first and tightened fully the next day once the bond had set. Not glued solid to the bracket, deliberately — just seated on a thin, sealed gasket layer, holding everything secure without stressing the joint.
We may use our devices a little differently while connected to the IridiumGo network – you’re not going to be able to watch Netflix on passage – but the navigation systems we now have onboard have meant we can sail Paikea safely and with access to all the resources we need.
Small job, several days’ work, and — as usual — one project along the way that quietly turned into two.This bracket is part of Paikea’s navigation setup — see the full rundown of instruments and comms on Paikea’s Systems