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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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New Depth Sounder

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Don B
Captain

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USA
317 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/15/2005 : 08:53:57

After having enough of sailing with a broken depth sounder, my new sounder arrived in the mail on Thursday. Looking forward to this fun project and expecting immediate results, I headed out to the boat on Friday, inserted the new gage, connected all wires, and epoxied the new puck next to the old puck. Feeling great and ready to celebrate, I popped open a cold soda. Into the cabin and flipped on the power, now out to the cockpit to sit back and enjoy being able to see how deep it is at my slip. What's going on!! No numbers!!

All other functions working except no numbers...Give me a break. It was getting dark and still very hot so I headed home very discouraged. That evening I read through the paperwork again and found that the epoxy they provided is a very slow drying epoxy. Apparently fast drying epoxy does not allow all air bubbles to escape and therefore, you have inaccurate readings. I'm thinking I would rather have inaccurate readings than no readings at all. You may sense my state of mind. Anyway, out to the boat the next morning not having any clue what to do. Turned on the power and lo and behold, it worked!

Apparently, allowing the epoxy to thouroughly dry was just the ticket. I was out sailing all day Saturday and the sounder works great! It's wonderful now that when I run aground, I can see I'm in 3 feet of water and the alarm works also.

Don B
86FK/SR #5216 "Mighty M"
Southwest Florida

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aeckhart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1709 Posts

Response Posted - 08/15/2005 : 09:02:28

I did the same on my wifes Bayliner, only the puck slid from the position I placed it in, reversed itself, and then the glue hardened. Now the thing sees everything in reverse, i.e. bottom slope is shoreward instead of seaward. Shows the numbers and marks fish though. All's fairly well that ends fairly well I guess.

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John P
Captain

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USA
324 Posts

Response Posted - 08/15/2005 : 09:59:55

Interesting. Mine is original as far as I can tell, however, I read the diros and see that it is set up to read the depth under the keel. I checked the depth in the slip to be about 12' and the depth meter reads about 8, so I can conclude that it is calibrated to read the depth under the keel. BUT, how is it that when I ran aground, it read 3'?

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ClamBeach
Master Marine Consultant

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3072 Posts

Response Posted - 08/15/2005 : 11:02:03

Repeat of an older post...

A chunk of wax from a 'Wax bowl Seal Ring" (goes under a toilet) holds a depth sounder puck in position nicely. Lets you remove/reposition as needed. Especially useful for testing performance at the sounder puck before making permanent... (have run all season in the Bayliner without any problems).

Available in most hardware stores for a dollar or two.

Edited by - on

Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 08/15/2005 : 13:20:34

My transducer has been in the wax (waxbowl seal ring) now for a year and still no problems.

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tcox
1st Mate

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USA
32 Posts

Response Posted - 08/15/2005 : 16:09:58

Here is a transducer story that I can hardly believe, and I wrote it! I bought my C-25, SR/FK in January of this year, so I put it in the water for the first time this spring. The boat is in a shallow inland lake, so a depth finder is not just a luxury, but a necessity. There was nothing but dashes on the display. The unit would run through the various tests and setting pages, but it acted as if there was no transducer attached. Investigation revealed there were two transducers installed, and that both still had leads with RCA connectors running to the unit. I switched the leads, but the result was the same. When I started tracing the leads I found one transducer in the forward part of the bilge. It was a thru-hull type and I thought that I may have painted over it with two coats of anti-fouling paint, so I put on a snorkel mask and went under to sand it clean. Still no reading. Now is the part I can't figure out. I switched to the newer looking lead and traced it to a transducer located under the quarter berth, but installed in a very peculiar way. The P.O. found a piece of Schedule 40 PVC pipe that the round transducer fit into perfectly. He cut the pipe about six inches long and epoxied the transducer into the top of the pipe. Then he epoxied the bottom of the pipe to the floor of the boat. He purposely created a four inch air gap between the transducer and the hull!! Then, he noted in the logbook that the "new transducer never worked from the start". Well, duh!! He is deceased now, so I can't ask him what he was thinking, but I surely can't understand the logic.

Edited by - on

Bubba
Admiral

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USA
542 Posts

Response Posted - 08/15/2005 : 20:28:04

Maybe he wanted to check the water depth in his bilge...

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ronrryan
Admiral

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USA
561 Posts

Response Posted - 08/16/2005 : 21:05:44

Some people used to epoxy a pvc pipe segment to the bilge and then fill it with mineral oil, screw cap on, transducer inside, lead wire out thru a hole in top (caulked), supposedly this worked. I never tried it, there seemed to be simpler ways. I love the idea of the toilet bowl ring, sounds like a winner, Ron srsk Orion #2343 in SW FL

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Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 08/16/2005 : 21:35:38

I use a PVC pipe shoot-through-hull transducer mount. I use distilled water in mine. It needs topping up maybe once a year. The transducer seems to work just fine. The rated depth of the unit is 800'. It can still see the bottom at over 500' looking through the fiberglass of the hull. It shows bottom structure and density well enough to sail or anchor with. As a fish finder, it can spot any fish big enough to make a meal.

-- Leon Sisson

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Don B
Captain

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USA
317 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2005 : 11:29:44

Leon, How do you have your fish finder mounted? An "in dash" type set up or external hook up? If it's an external hook up, the way I'm scrammbling around the boat, I would be afraid of breaking it off it's mount. I do really like the idea of the depth sound/fish finder combo though...

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John P
Captain

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USA
324 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2005 : 11:58:38

My DS appeared to have died last night. Not sure. Was working fine while motoring out to deep water, but when I shut the motor off, it was gone. I realized I never turned the batteries on, so I turned them on and still no DS. Ah, more work on the boat.

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2005 : 17:23:40

My Humminbird Matrix 10 with integral GPS rocks.

One removable instrument does it all.

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Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2005 : 20:08:15

Don B,<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Leon, How do you have your fish finder mounted? An "in dash" type set up or external hook up?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">I made a teak 'picture frame' for the fish finder. There are two maybe 3/4" holes through the bulkhead for the fish finder wiring. The picture frame is what holds the fish finder in place, and the frame is attached with four #8 or so screws with heads in cabin. Not as much bulkhead surgery as flush mount, and a lot sturdier than the stock plastic surface mounting bracket. And more teak!

I also made a Sunbrella cover for it to preserve the fish finder and teak treatment. Here's a picture:
<center>

</center>
-- Leon Sisson

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Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2005 : 20:35:04

Now that's some fancy wood working!

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Don B
Captain

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USA
317 Posts

Response Posted - 08/18/2005 : 07:41:26

Great looking woodwork Leon!

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britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 08/18/2005 : 07:57:03

Leon,
is that the spare fish finder lurking around near the bottom of that Pic?

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Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 08/18/2005 : 09:42:46

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Leon, is that the spare fish finder lurking around near the bottom of that Pic?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Yeah, that's Abaco, the rare and fierce Bahamian Panther. He finds any fish that aren't submerged. He's particularly good at locating any seafood left unattended in the galley.

[url="http://home.mpinet.net/~sissonl/hi/Abacos03_123Jm.JPG"]Another picture of Abaco[/url].

-- Leon Sisson

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