Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:
Maybe I'll just go back to lead and line and have anybody on board go
up to the bow and do soundings like in the old days. :)

"By the quarter nine".

~~ snicker ~~

Why laugh? It works. But don't send just anybody, it takes a bit of
skill to be a leadsman.

wrote:
I've been much more a saler of boats than a sailor, but it would seem
that
a single unit would work even on most sailboats.

Yep, works fine. I have seen depthsounders go on the blink when the boat
heeled over, but only when there was a *lot* of heel (more than 45
degrees) and it could have been turbulence under the hull (sailboats
usually slide sideways when they heel way over).

... When you're heeled
over, you're typically moving along pretty quickly on a long reach and
I can't "fathom" (ouch) doing that in an area likely to be shallow.
Would it be possible to get a reading when changing tacks? (not that
you have a lot of time to do so......)


No need to worry, the depthsounder will work fine at usual sailing
angles. I've even seen them installed without the fairing block.

When preparing to anchor or proceeding slowly through fog (and using
the DS to help verify position by comparing soundings on the chart)
your boat should be upright enough to hear the echoes fairly clearly.


Just so's you'll know how much anchor rode to let out!

Don White wrote:
I've been thinking of the same addition for my modest cruising sailboat.
Some swear by the 'shoot through fiberglass' type of transducer, others
feel the best way is to drill the hole and put in a traditional
'thru-hull version'. I'll decide next spring.

Why not put it thru the hull? For a trailerable boat, that makes even
more sense than one kept in the water. But then, being of the old school
"if you want it done right, do it yourself" school of thought, I rarely
stay up at night worrying about the integrity of holes sawed in my hull,
or patched spots where holes used to be.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King