Greetings:

I have a Ray Jefferson 5700 Deep Flasher on board our 48' Trawler as our
secondary depth sounder. During our last cruise from the San Juan Islands
to NYC, it served first as a "backup" unit, and then as my "old reliable".

We have a Furuno CRT "fish finder" as primary, and it's great... tells me
what the bottom looks like, how hard it is (for anchoring), Water temp,
speed etc...

BUT! While on portions of the ICW, tailing tugs/tows, or
in the prop-wash of a sport-fisher, the Furuno is useless due to all the
"noise". I found the Ray Jefferson much more usefull in such situations.
Having to stay in a narrow channel (we draw 6 feet), with fast boats all
around churning up air and weeds I found myself relying on the Ray
Jefferson.

Well; it broke! I fixed it, the springs on the comutator wore a grove in
the stator. Now it is broke again, can't find parts (coil-springs)!

What I REALLY want is another 5700; even if just for the parts; a working
"head" assembly would be wonderful. The transducer is good, faired nicely
in the hull; such a shame to have to chuck the thing and buy an
"electronic" fancy-dan "fish finder" when all I want to know is how deep
the water is RELIABLY! Sometimes us mariners don't care what's between us
and the bottom, all we want to see is the bottom! None of the new units
seem to be geared to doing just that, and none of them seem able to use
the existing transducer.

Anyone out there have an old RJ5700 laying around in the garage?? I would
sure love to hear from you.

Also, is there a "DEPTH SOUNDER" made today?
Not a fish-finder, just a reliable depth indicator, no computer, no
screen, just DEPTH!!

Bob

-------------------------------------
M/V Tamara B Cape Elisebeth Me.
http://www.tamara-b.org
currently at N40.36.48 W73.55.09
-------------------------------------

Check out the new NASA cruiser Depth -

Technical Specifications

Very large display.
Depth range 0.8 to 100 metres.
Shallow and deep alarms.
Blue backlighting.
Keel offset.
Simple Operation.
Compete with transducer and 7 metres of cable.
Low current consumption - 10mA @ 12V + 20mA for backlight.
Dimensions - 132mm x 98mm x 29mm


Regards

Dave






"Captain Bob" wrote in message
news
Greetings:

I have a Ray Jefferson 5700 Deep Flasher on board our 48' Trawler as our
secondary depth sounder. During our last cruise from the San Juan Islands
to NYC, it served first as a "backup" unit, and then as my "old reliable".

We have a Furuno CRT "fish finder" as primary, and it's great... tells me
what the bottom looks like, how hard it is (for anchoring), Water temp,
speed etc...

BUT! While on portions of the ICW, tailing tugs/tows, or
in the prop-wash of a sport-fisher, the Furuno is useless due to all the
"noise". I found the Ray Jefferson much more usefull in such situations.
Having to stay in a narrow channel (we draw 6 feet), with fast boats all
around churning up air and weeds I found myself relying on the Ray
Jefferson.

Well; it broke! I fixed it, the springs on the comutator wore a grove in
the stator. Now it is broke again, can't find parts (coil-springs)!

What I REALLY want is another 5700; even if just for the parts; a working
"head" assembly would be wonderful. The transducer is good, faired nicely
in the hull; such a shame to have to chuck the thing and buy an
"electronic" fancy-dan "fish finder" when all I want to know is how deep
the water is RELIABLY! Sometimes us mariners don't care what's between us
and the bottom, all we want to see is the bottom! None of the new units
seem to be geared to doing just that, and none of them seem able to use
the existing transducer.

Anyone out there have an old RJ5700 laying around in the garage?? I would
sure love to hear from you.

Also, is there a "DEPTH SOUNDER" made today?
Not a fish-finder, just a reliable depth indicator, no computer, no
screen, just DEPTH!!

Bob

-------------------------------------
M/V Tamara B Cape Elisebeth Me.
http://www.tamara-b.org
currently at N40.36.48 W73.55.09
-------------------------------------

Comments below:

"Captain Bob" wrote in message
news
Greetings:

I have a Ray Jefferson 5700 Deep Flasher
snipped bit was here
Also, is there a "DEPTH SOUNDER" made today?
Not a fish-finder, just a reliable depth indicator, no computer, no
screen, just DEPTH!!

Bob

-------------------------------------
M/V Tamara B Cape Elisebeth Me.
http://www.tamara-b.org
currently at N40.36.48 W73.55.09
-------------------------------------

I can help you with the last question. This is from the September 2003 (Vol
29-Numbers 17&18) Practical Sailor:

"Just the Numbers, Please: A Stand-Alone Sounder Sampling

The Raymarine ST40 and ST60 shine in our test of nine sounders. Smaller and
less expensive units from Norcross and Uniden also deserve consideration.

Last December we reviewed fishfinders (aka scanning sounders) in Practical
Sailor. If you're installing a depthsounder (and through-hull transducer)
for the first time, and have space for such an instrument, it makes sense to
at least consider a sounder that will paint you a picture of the bottom as
well as give you depth numbers and (usually) water temperature-especially
because monochrome fishfinders are priced about the same as single-purpose
sounders, or even less. (If you're a fisherman as well as a sailor, so much
the better.) In a future issue we'll review color fishfinders, too.

However, there are also plenty of reasons to choose a numbers-only sounder.
They take up..."

Sorry, you'll have to subscribe or find a copy of this issue somewhere to
read the rest.
http://www.practical-sailor.com/pub/...es/4858-1.html
--
Ken Heaton & Anne Tobin
Cape Breton Island, Canada
kenheaton AT ess wye dee DOT eastlink DOT ca

In article ,
Captain Bob wrote:

Also, is there a "DEPTH SOUNDER" made today?
Not a fish-finder, just a reliable depth indicator, no computer, no
screen, just DEPTH!!

Check out the simple sailboat depth sounders. I suspect you'll find them
more usable than the old RJ. It's particularly nice to see 10ths of feet
when under 10'. We draw 4'2". If we see 4.3, we're floating. 4.2 means
we just bumped. Some of our favorite anchorages are 4.5-5' at low tide.

And if you want to eliminate a hole in the hull, they can be mounted to
shoot through many hulls.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Comments below:

"Captain Bob" wrote in message
news
Greetings:

I have a Ray Jefferson 5700 Deep Flasher on board our 48' Trawler as our

snipped bit was here

Also, is there a "DEPTH SOUNDER" made today?
Not a fish-finder, just a reliable depth indicator, no computer, no
screen, just DEPTH!!

Bob

-------------------------------------
M/V Tamara B Cape Elisebeth Me.
http://www.tamara-b.org
currently at N40.36.48 W73.55.09
-------------------------------------

I can't help with the 5700 but I can answer the second question. This is a
quote from the September 2003 Practical Sailor:
"Just the Numbers, Please: A Stand-Alone Sounder Sampling

The Raymarine ST40 and ST60 shine in our test of nine sounders. Smaller and
less expensive units from Norcross and Uniden also deserve consideration.

Last December we reviewed fishfinders (aka scanning sounders) in Practical
Sailor. If you're installing a depthsounder (and through-hull transducer)
for the first time, and have space for such an instrument, it makes sense to
at least consider a sounder that will paint you a picture of the bottom as
well as give you depth numbers and (usually) water temperature-especially
because monochrome fishfinders are priced about the same as single-purpose
sounders, or even less. (If you're a fisherman as well as a sailor, so much
the better.) In a future issue we'll review color fishfinders, too.

However, there are also plenty of reasons to choose a numbers-only sounder.
They take up..."

Sorry, you'll have to go to the website
http://www.practical-sailor.com/pub/...es/4858-1.html or find a
copy of the issue to read the rest.
--
Ken Heaton & Anne Tobin
Cape Breton Island, Canada
kenheaton AT ess wye dee DOT eastlink DOT ca

In article ,
Captain Bob wrote:

Well; it broke! I fixed it, the springs on the comutator wore a grove in
the stator. Now it is broke again, can't find parts (coil-springs)!

Ball Point Pen Springs work very well in this service when cut to length.

Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @

In article ,
Captain Bob wrote:

BUT! While on portions of the ICW, tailing tugs/tows, or
in the prop-wash of a sport-fisher, the Furuno is useless due to all the
"noise".

Next time you do a "Haulout" install a "bubble deflector" in front
of the transducer.

Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @