[Antennas] Sailboats - What are my options.

[JT Croteau]

Hi everyone.

I live on a small sailboat in the Los Angeles Harbor and sail frequently on
the weekends to Catalina and up and down the So. Cal coast.  However, much
of my time during the week is spent at the dock in the LA Harbor.  Now, for
those of you not familiar with the LA Harbor, it is a very active harbor
with alot of cranes, trucks, ships, radios, etc. and is surrounded by alot
of oil refineries.  This, unfortunately, creates alot of noise into my
radios and TV's making it hard to tune in alot of stations.  I've had my
ticket since 1989 but I've never had to deal with noise issues like this
before so please pardon my ignorance.  How should I approach this?

I presently do not have an HF antenna setup on the boat.  I want to setup
something that's easy to take down when I get ready to sail and that can be
put back up when I am anchored.  Traditonally, sailors make antennas out of
the wire rigging that supports the mast.  However, I don't think the rigging
on my small 27' sailboat will be long enough for this to be effective.

Should I just play around with something like a BuddiPole?  What do I do
about all the noise around me.

Any suggestions?  Thanks.

- JT (W6CFO)