Depth sounders.

[Jeff Kittle]

We have used a windsurfer mast as our depth sounder which worked. We also fastened one on a stick which was just as inconvenient but also worked. We epoxied one to the outside between the keel and the skeg but it eventually ripped off and probably was creating drag when it was in place. I am considering putting a 1-2" epoxy window in the wood with the transducer on the inside. or I could put it on the transom of the engine box but if I am sailing it won't work. What have other people done?

[Olivier R.]

Je ne sais pas à qui est ce bateau photos de mes archives

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Peace has something similar to what is shown in the photographs above, but we put it in the port hull and that was unfortunate.  In any channel, you must pass oncomming traffic port to port so if the depth sounder is in the port hull, it measures the depth of the water in the center of the channel.  But you are more interested in the water depth at the edge of the channel where it is likely more shallow and you are trying not to go aground.  Our boat gets a lot of use, and we have already replaced almost all of the electronics as they have stopped working for one reason or the other.  when the old depth sounder fails, we will replace it with a fish finder which shows the countour of the bottom - where you will find deeper water!  And we will install it in the starboard hull!  Meanwhile, we hare not actually having any troubles as we are, but for current builders, put it in the starboard hull, for sure.

[boatsmith]

Good point Ann. We also puy ours in a nodule simila rto the photos above. Another one we had to use a transom mount, so we built a hinged leg under the back tramp to hold it.

[Jeff Kittle]

So did all of you avoid putting epoxy over the face of the transducer or is the transducer shooting through the epoxy?

[boatsmith]

NO epoxy over transducer. Install the transducer after the epoxy work.

[Ann and Neville Clement]

You can get special transducer antifoul.  Comes in a tiny bottle similar to fingernail polish.  We get two coats of this special paint and it lasts for three or four bottom paint jobs but that is only if you remember where it is in the boat.....    We probably have three bottles of the stuff now. 

 

We are so overly cautious, we epoxied our transducer in so that it is not a hole in the boat because you cannot take it out ever.  But the working face of it has no epoxy on it.  Only the special antifoul paint.  We don't have any holes in the hulls below the water line at all.  Sink drains are 1 foot above.  We have a porta potty, and I guess we have to admit to being ultra conservative about holes in hulls.  I love the outboard motors that have no need for holes for prop shafts.  It is a great comfort.  I once had a stuffing box come forward on an inboard on a monohull I had years ago.  I had just crossed the Atlantic solo and it broke free one week after I arrived in Ireland.  Never again an inboard engine!  Could have happened in mid Atlantic!

 

 

[Jeff Kittle]

I appreciate all of the feedback. We'll be putting Kittywake back in the water on Feb 2 so I'll be making a decistion soon.

[Cute Helles]

Hi, does anybody have an instruction now to build a nodule for a depthsounder transducer, similar to this foto?