Hole in the Bilge

[clausont]

Well, not as bad as it sounds. I removed the paddle wheel through hull fitting for the Horizon Standard knot meter as it was damaged and the instrument was bad due to age and corrosion. I had thought that I would just replace it with a similar unit but it seems that nothing uses the paddle wheel anymore. I will replace the instrument with a GPS instead now. (I don't really care exactly how fast I go).
My question now is what to do with the hole where the paddle wheel was?
I really did not want to grind it down inside and outside and glass it in again (the opposite side of the bilge already has one patch like that) to eliminate the hole. What other solution might there be for this hole? I don't think that I need any more 2" through hull fittings. Probably glassing it in would be the safest way to go.

[Weyalan]

When I removed old instruments, I removed the thru-hulls and re-glassed. However, since you don't want to do that, you could get a solid plug the correct diameter for the thru hull and glue it into place.

[Alan Wheeler]

Not sure what you mean by "nothing uses the paddlewheel" anymore. Do you mean there is not a paddlewheel to suit your model??? Because through hull paddlewheels are still very much used. The Manufacturer for all trandsducers is a company called Airmar. You will find them ont he web. I bought a paddlewheel a couple of years back by finding a cross reference on Airmars site and then keeping an eye on the Ebay site. Eventually one came up and I bought it. You will find the same model speedwheel maybe used on other makes and models as well.

[clausont]

Thanks Alan - I did not know about Airmar. I will look them up. I have looked at various different speed /log instruments and have not found any that use the paddlewheel. I will have to look more. Since I will need to replace the entire instrument, can anyone suggest a replacement for the Horizon Standard unit that I removed from my boat. I do not have the model available right now but it is a bulkhead mount style that mounts in about a 4" hole. I will assume that the speedwheel through hull is a standard size that I can utilize the existing hole with.

[GordMay]

Airmar Transducers Home Page

[Alan Wheeler]

instruments and have not found any that use the paddlewheel.

Ummm, what else would they use???

[clausont]

You are right Alan - I just did not do my research well.
I found a new replacement knot meter.
Thanks

[Rodz]

you do not have to "find" a replacement. Call Standard Horizon service, give them your model # and how many paddles your transducer uses and they will advise you a replacement. I had the same problem with my model 45 a couple of weeks ago. I have bought a replacement paddlewheel ($17) from them, installed it within a few minutes and it works fine.

[clausont]

Thanks Rodz - I did email Standard Horizon about repairing the knotmeter quite some time ago and I never did receive a response from them. I did not try to call them or email again as the instrument switch is pretty corroded and the face is pretty badly sunburned inside the glass. If the instrument itself was any good, I would certainly do just what you say. That is good information.
I think that at this point, I will just spend the money and buy a new Moor knot meter unless I can find something else.
Does anybody know anything about Moor instruments?