depth/ fish finder

[saltyrogue]

Has anyone had success with a transom mounted transducer on a MacGregor? I am concerned that it may be difficult to keep it in the water in anything other than flat seas. Also, can anyone recommend a unit that uses a shoot thru the hull transducer at a reasonable price- say under three bills.

Thanks!

Dave

[NiceAft]

I have a transom mounted transducer on Nice Aft. It has been there for six seasons, and I am happy with it. I have used it mostly on rivers and lakes, but I have also used it on the Atlantic Ocean, five miles off the coast of Atlantic City while black seabass fishing. I needed it to locate a wreck.

As to a through the hull transducer, I only know what I read on this site. Using the search function located at the uppermost right corner of this page, try a search for "thru the hull transducers", or "through the hull transducers". I know I have read several post on this subject. I'm sure you will see responses on this.

Ray

[Dennis]

Dave:

I use a Lowrance unit with their standard Skimmer transducer. I use the Skimmer inside the boat. It works just fine. I cannot tell tell the diffenence from when it was mounted on the outside. I have it mounted in Home Depot plumbers putty next to the port side rear ballast tank. I have used it for over a year this way. The only time there is any difficulty; when I heel the boat in excess of 20-25 degrees. Then depending upon how heavily loaded the boat, the transducer may come out of the water.

Dennis

[Russ]

Hmm.. most transducers can be mounted inside the hull, although they may not say so. There are many methods of doing this. I've personally done it on several boats. I cut the bottom of a plastic bowl to make a containment barrier and squirt clear silicone caulk onto the hull. Try to keep the air bubbles out and then press the transducer into the caulk and hold it vertical until the caulk dries. If it doesn't work, take a knife and cut it out and try again.


--Russ

[capncarp]

I use a "Standard Horizon" depth/ fish finder on my X. The transducer is mounted on the transom about 6-8 inches from the centerline of the bottom s/b side. Cavitation doesn't seem to be a problem. I mount it there because it also has speed readout so water flow over the wheel is needed. It works fine and is accurate on depth. When heeled it works just fine till about 20 degrees. After that I'm not looking at it. I'm just hanging on.
capncarp,
99X

[Russ]

One suggestion might be to use a GPS chartplotter with a depth finder like this one. I absolutely love having the chartplotter and depth on the same device. The GPS speed is helpful too.

Have you looked at Sumner's mods. He mounted his on the transom. He's also got some other fantastic S mods.


--Russ

[c130king]

I have a transom mounted depth finder as part of my Garmin GPSMap 546s Chartplotter/Sounder set-up. Works fine except at high speed motoring it doesn't work properly...I think a pocket of turbulet air/water forms around the sounder and it doesn't get a reading until I slow down and reset. I might need to raise it or lower it a little bit...not sure.

But otherwise it works great.

Jim

[Russ]

Works fine except at high speed motoring it doesn't work properly...I think a pocket of turbulet air/water forms around the sounder and it doesn't get a reading until I slow down and reset.

Fairly typical of when air bubbles at high speed (X/M) boats kick up. My powerboat did the same thing. Depth finders are useless at high speeds.

[nedmiller]

We have a transom mounted fish finder/chartplotter mounted starboard of the centerline several inches. I think that if you mount it inside you will have to avoid mounting over the water ballast tank or it will not work when the tank is empty. If you mount it in front of the tank, it won't work when the nose is high when motoring. I could never find a good spot inside.
SILK

[Hamin' X]

I have the Garmin 441 on my X and it works great with the paddle-wheel transducer mounted on the stern. I very seldom allow heeling past the 20 degree mark, as you are making too much leeway past that and not making as much headway toward your target as you think. It's all about VMG, when beating.

Yes, when under full power, the depth is not accurate, but if you are in questionable waters running at speed, you will run aground before you have warning anyway. Slow down.

~Rich

[NiceAft]

I very seldom allow heeling past the 20 degree mark, as you are making too much leeway past that and not making as much headway toward your target as you think. It's all about VMG, when beating.

Yep Rich, you're right, if you have somewhere to go. If not, then it's the journey that counts, not the destination.
Most of the time I am sailing just to be sailing. Nowhere to go, and plenty of time to get there. If there is enough wind, and we can heel to the extreme , then let it happen. The Admiral loves it, and I get a thrill out of seeing how long I can hold a heel of 40, 45, 50 degrees. Unless it's a sunset sail, then it's just time to be lazy.

This is all a moot point for me. NiceAft is wrapped up for a long winter nap Now is when I read with envy, the posts from California, Florida, Australia, and wherever people are sailing at this time of year. It sure isn't here


Ray

[Sumner]

......Have you looked at Sumner's mods. He mounted his on the transom. He's also got some other fantastic S mods....--Russ

Just a little feedback. We have been using the Cuda on the lifelines for the past 3+ weeks and love it there and would do it again in a heartbeat. It is so much easier for Ruth to see it and/or me, by pushing it forward or backwards on the line. Probably not a good place on an X or M, but for a tiller boat I'd highly recommend it.

The transom mount has also worked well. Twice it has lost the depth for some reason and I've had to turn it off and back on again. Also a couple times when Ruth was backing down while anchoring the prop has thrown bubbles at it and it has stopped showing the depth, but quickly recovered.

The only thing I don't like about the Cuda is that you can't download waypoints to it. It outputs NEMA only although reading about it you might think otherwise. It has sent our location to the Standard Horizon VHF with DSC without fail. That was one of the main reasons we bought it. We run it in the map mode and then display the depth in "huge" letters on that screen. It will also run in sonar mode only or in a split screen mode. I think it is a good deal for the money. The maps are better than the ones that came in the Garmin Map 76 we have, but still nothing like having the NOAA charts on the computer/chart plotter that has been indispensable on this trip. Besides the Cuda we run the Garming handheld in the cockpit with the route waypoints in it from the SeaClear running on the computer below. I pop down and use it to route Ruth in tight channels.

c ya (posting from offshore Punta Gorda via the "4th floor closset" server from some nearby hotel),

Sum

Our Trips to...

Our Mac Pages

Mac Links

[Russ]

(posting from offshore Punta Gorda via the "4th floor closset" server from some nearby hotel)

Love it!
That is so cool.

Envious of you spending December in a nice warm place on your boat.

--Russ

[Sumner]

.....Love it!
That is so cool.

Envious of you spending December in a nice warm place on your boat.

--Russ

Well we took out Sat. in the rain after 3 1/2 weeks and drove to PA (without the boat) for Christmas and arrived today.

About the "nice warm place".............Florida was cold with record lows. We woke up 3 mornings on the last cold spell with 41-42 in the boat. Cold, but we survived. We had two good days of sailing over the last 2 days on the water before taking out. We were able to sail about 8-9 miles to Punta Gorda and back the next day to where we had been anchored during the cold spell and during 30-40 mph winds.

Despite the cold fronts we had a great time and it was hard to leave the Mac and we plan on returning in the spring.

Sum and Ruth