Some advice please?

[JAT]

On our GulfStar 44...the depthfinder puck is mounted through the hull roughly halfway or a little more back toward the stern from the bow. What I don't like about this situation is the fact that there has been several occasions when it has told me the water got shallow after I was already there.

What I want to do is mount a depthfinder forward in the boat..probably 6 or 8 feet back from the bow....and the most logical place to do this is on one of the chines as it would not necessitate a fairing block or any voodoo because the forward part of the hull is rather steep..

The question is: Since this is a slow boat...cruising at 7 knots or so, would there be too much turbulence under the chine that the depthfinder wouln't work?

Thanks!

 

[windmist]

I can't imagine that the small protusion of a depth sounder sender would be noticable to you if you cruise at 7 knots. The problem I see is getting to the inside of that area and getting a flat surface that would be parallel to the outside surface.

My last boat was a Defever 45 and I had the chines filled in with a filet to stop the wave slap noise when at anchor. This boats top speed was 10 knots and I cruised at 7.5 knots. Never did see or detect any performance problems.

If you follow Active Captain, Jeff says he installed depth senders on each side of the boat so he would have a better idea of where the sides of the ditch (ICW) where. You might checked his site for more info as I may have it all wrong.

Ron

 

[Duvie]

I have glued transducers inside the hull with epoxy with good results. The hull needs to be solid fiberglass and not cored. The benifit is you do not have to drill any holes. If the location you chose does not work out you can cut the tranducer out with a string or abrasive cord and try a different location. Use a slow curing epoxy and stir slowly as to not trap air bubbles as these will affect the performance of the transducer. Leon

 

[Shoalwaters]

My depthsounder tranducers live in short pieces of PVC pipe glued to the inside of the hull with 5200 or similar. The tubes stand vertical and are filled with oil of some kind. They are located under the forward cabin sole. The sounders seem to work fine. There was a series of posts on this subject fairly recently.

 

[dwhatty]

Get a forward looking sonar?

 

[JAT]

Thanks all for your responses!!

I have been considering all of the options you have mentioned so far, and while I would have liked to get one of Interphase's forward looking sonars...I did speak with their people and they expressed the opinion that our waters here in FL...the ICW and what not are really not deep enough to take advantage of their units...

I'll probably go with the inside the hull route, though since we are on the hard at present...its the optimum time to install a thruhull transducer.

 

[Anode]

You can buy transducers that flush mount and and match the angle of your hull 0 degree, 12 degree or 20 degree.. No more need for faring.

http://www.airmartechnology.com/2009/marine/product-search-results.asp

 

[FF]

At 7K the stern water is probably no airated , so a transducer in a bracket on the swim platform , immersed when at anchor and underway should do fine.

Internal gooped in place also works but costs deep readings.

Fine for the ICW as a depth sounder , but less useful as a nav aid , running a contour nav plot.

FF.

 

[jeffnick]

One More Time Around: Shoot Through The Hull

Isn't that freshly painted bottom beautiful!

 

[FF]

Most boats can not stop in a few feet.

Moving the sounder sender , even 10 ft in front of the bow will not keep you from grounding.

If its not a charted area , as Cap Cook did , a dink with a pole is the only realistic answer.

Esp if the bottom space is inches.

FF

 

[jeffnick]

Most boats can not stop in a few feet.

Moving the sounder sender , even 10 ft in front of the bow will not keep you from grounding.

If its not a charted area , as Cap Cook did , a dink with a pole is the only realistic answer.

Esp if the bottom space is inches.

FF

You and I do a different kind of boating. If I'm gunkholing in 3' of water I'm at idle or bumping the throttle. With the 'ducer 20' in front of the transom, it's easy enough to stop before the outdrive gets in trouble.

 

[FF]

"You and I do a different kind of boating."

Sometimes , we also have a 23 ft Regal for trailer cruising.

In thin water we simply use a pole at the bow , no dink is carried.

FF

 

[JAT]

Most boats can not stop in a few feet.

Moving the sounder sender , even 10 ft in front of the bow will not keep you from grounding.

If its not a charted area , as Cap Cook did , a dink with a pole is the only realistic answer.

Esp if the bottom space is inches.

FF

I've been mostly thinking of them in terms of use when moving very slowly....

You know quickly depths can change her in FL....even in the ICW.

The one on the boat now is amidships and its been known to give strange depth readings and even says they are not reliable. Looking as much for redundancy.....

 

[psneeld]

I've been mostly thinking of them in terms of use when moving very slowly....

You know quickly depths can change her in FL....even in the ICW.

The one on the boat now is amidships and its been known to give strange depth readings and even says they are not reliable. Looking as much for redundancy.....

I'm with FF on this...it's rare when the bottom changes so abruptly along the southeastern US seaboard that the ducer position in your bilge will give adequate warning...moving slow or not. Even if it does change abruptly...that's the kind of bottom you can usually back off of if you do slide up on it (as long as you are going dead slow).