Garmin Echo 150 Fishfinder Transducer Question

[chouliha]

Hi Folks

We are headed back to the US soon for our annual greet the family & spend boat bucks. One of the things that has been on our list for the past few years is a Fishfinder. A excellent way to determine bottom contour when anchoring. Ok may even point us to some fish as well.

The basic package comes with the head and a 20' length of cable ending in a transom mounted transducer.

Question

Has anyone used this identical system (Garmin 150) and used the supplied transom transducer to shoot thru the fiberglass hull? I know many boats that use this method (with type unknown) and even though it reduces the overall depth reading seems to work just fine.

To swap out the transom mounted transducer for a normal thru hull type will cost me a lot more than the entire unit costs.

Your comments and suggestions on the Garmin 150 would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Chuck
SV Jacaranda
Bahia de Ecuador
Headed Panama next week

[chouliha]

I never got any response on this post but wanted to share my experience regarding the installation of the Garmin Echo 150.

We did purchase this unit a number of years ago and installed it inside the fiberglass hull using silicone. First we wired it up and put the standard transducer in a plastic bag of water moving it around until we found a favorable return. Then dried the transducer off and stuck it down on a large blob of silicone. It works well up to about 75’.

We are not using the fish finder to look for fish though I must admit it was cool seeing the large sharks of Fakarava show up on the finder. What we are using this for is to determine the terrain on the bottom. Tropical cruising means coral and bommies. This unit shows us what the bottom consists of before we drop our hook.

We have been pleasantly surprised in how much it has helped us in areas that are either to deep to see the bottom or water with poor visibility.

It’s a reasonably cheap addition to our anchoring arsenal. If you are headed to the tropics you may want to think about inexpensive fish finder

Safe sailing

Chuck
Jacaranda