MacGregorSailors.com

Any ideas on how and where to mount a depth finder without pulling the out of the water?
Thanks

It's not real complicated, high tech or sexy but I mounted my transponder in plumber's putty in the space under the v berth.

I anchored where I knew the depth and moved the transducer around until I got a good reading with the ballast tank empty so I knew I was shooting through the hull.

It's working been well for 4 months and thousands of miles.

I like the putty since it let me rock the transducer until I got nicely shaped triangles when fish passed.

I really can't see drilling unneeded holes and that meets your requirement to install without leaving the water.

Use an "in-hull" transducer that shoots through the hull, rather than a transom mount transducer that requires you to drill holes below the waterline.

I just installed my Garmin 178C on our X this past weekend and used an Airmar P79 sold by Garmin. It's adjustable for deadrise angle.

There's enough cable on it to run from about the front dinette seat back to the transom, up onto the steering cable, following it up to the pedestal. I'll probably mount it right behind the aft dinette seat in the small tunnel under the head door, so it will still be in the water when the boat is on plane.

But I want to test it with the boat in the water before gluing it down permanently.

Here's Airmar's FAQ for more info.
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Moe

Mounted transom style depth transducer on thin (1/8 inch?) 2inch wide plate. Plate upper end is removably clamped to transom next to motor by a wide mouth clamp. Works fine.

Thanks guys.

I used a 3 inch diameter piece of PVC pipe that I sawed off to fit the bottom profile of the hull on the inside spot where I wanted the unit to be. I epoxy puttied the pipe to the hull. Filled it with mineral oil and afixed the transducer head in a kind of cap piece I made of a piple reducer section. Its worked great for 2 years. Mineral oil serves to give the transducer a medium through which to shoot the beam effectively. Mineral oil won't freeze during winter layup and no thru-hull fittings or holes.

Can I mount a transom transducer inside the hull? I'm having trouble finding a puck for mounting inside.

Help

Michael

My Humminbird will mount either on the transom or it will do thru hull. I wasn't satisfied were the PO had it on the transom, since it stopped working due to prop thrash, and will be moving it inside under the aft bunk.

What is the least expensive model that works??

I don't know what the least expensive depthfinder is, but based on price versus the Garmin I went with the Raymarine DS400X. For ~$290 including shipping it included a transom mount transducer with depth/temp/speed sensor. It mounted up fine (although routing of wires wasn't so easy up the steering pedastal) and seems to work well (only have used it once so far though, it's a new boat). There are pictures of the mounting of the unit and transducer on our website http://www.brownz.com/sailing.htm