I totally agree with Larry. A fish finder is the way to go and gives
much more info than a straight digital read out. I have a cheap lowrance
on my 40' cutter which does everything you are after and more. One word
of warning: Make sure that the transducer you get with whatever you buy
is a 50 and/or 200kHz variant (which seems now standard and hence more
easily available) and is what you need for your boat (i.e. though hull
and of the right material). The cost of getting a different transducer
can be high as I have found.

Finally, although the lowrance machine (X.65) I have is actually quite
good and works well, Lowance have been a total black hole in terms of
getting help. I don't know if this is normal but I was not impressed.
The cost of the bits where I live in New Zealand was just stupid (*3 the
US cost) and Lowrance will not ship overseas from their US distributor
or web site.

So make sure that you will not get fleeced for spare parts.

Steve

Dennis Pogson wrote:
Mark wrote:

Also make sure you can OFFSET the reading, too. . . . you want

to be
able to calibrate in the depth difference offset from the transducer's
location to the bottom of the keel.

Two schools of thought here; the "make it read 0 when the keel
touches" and the "make it read the actual depth, 0 equals no water."
The lattter seems more common, easier to correlate the depth to chart
soundings and what other folks say the depth is. To each his own
though.


Any depth sounder that will read to 50' is deep enough. . . .

Who cares if the
depth is 3000' or 300'?

Beg to differ, a good deep-reading depth sounder is a very useful
navigational aide. Can be used to determine how far offshore you are,
pick up undersea canyons which lead to harbors and anchorages,
establish a single LOP, etc.. An example: Consulting a chart reveals
there are no onshore hazards (pinnacles, reefs) outside the 100 fathom
line of a particular shore. Using the depthsounder, one can follow
the 100 fathom contour line and be assured of no nasty surprises on a
coastal passage.




Looking at the incredibly tortuous depth contours off the West of Scotland
where I sail, I would run out of fuel double-quick if I followed them, and
in a sailboat under sail, forget it! I could not care less once the depth
gets above 10 metres.



--
Satellite photocharts of the UK & Ireland
available, excellent detail and accurate
calibration using Oziexplorer.
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