transducer forward of keel will it get trashed?

[hscrugby]

I've got a Hans Christian 33t.
Instead of bouncing off of sandbars to find them, I'd like to upgrade to a MUCH better sonar setup.
Right now all she has is a depth finder. I was looking at the Panoptix setup.
But since she's full keel, the suggested mounting point is forward of the keel.
I'm nervous about this sticking down in front and getting ripped off when I haul out for bottom paint etc. At 1500$ for the transducer, I'd rather NOT have to replace it ever haul out from a strap smashing it. Or worse, having a strap smash it on splash and lead to a leak.

https://static.garmincdn.com/en/prod...455829db99.jpg

[tkeithlu]

I'm not sure whether you are asking a question. That said, forward-looking sonar, even with the Garmin name, has not really taken off. I suspect that that means that the return in fewer groundings doesn't really balance the cost. In addition, a lifting strap is not your only concern, as in:

https://www.panbo.com/debris-takes-o...-still-floats/

You've got a full keel. That protects your rudder and prop, so you are way ahead of people with fin keels and spade rudders. I'm in the same situation, a keel foot protects everything, and I surely have tested it. My experience suggests careful reading of charts to note sudden changes in depth, care around any water that may contain shoaling, and an alarm on my depth sounder should I get to less than three feet under the keel, works. It helps to know exactly what depth on the sounder results in grounding. In my case, 2.5 feet is the limit, with the transducer beside the keel. It has let me cruise in (by the chart) seven foot water with a five foot draft.

Give it some more thought before you take the dive. You could pay for a lot of years of TowBoatUS with that much money. You could also mount a regular transducer in front of the keel slightly recessed in the hull.

[hscrugby]

Yea, the issue I've had was twice the charts showed hugging one side or the other would be better, and once two passing boats told me to hug my starboard of the channel as my port would only be about 3' of water. That time they were right, but it was still only 5.25' of water, and I need 5.5'.
(give or take, but definite bounce and slide along the soft bottom)
The other time I hugged, and slid right up onto a sandbar. Was able to rotate,(thanks random dude that saw me get stuck in the skiff and helped.) put the sails up and get enough lean to float off. But I'd really rather stop hitting sandbars.

I saw the writeup on panbo and elsewhere about the peg sticking down for the just forward facing. And that seems more fragile than the longer "fin" style.

Plus the peg ONLY does forward and can't give you depth that's right under you. It needs other sonar to make a full picture.
I'm hauling out today or tomorrow, so I'm in the "make a decision" since it would be real hard to add after she's back in the water.

[psk125]

Forward-looking units may have a problem giving you information in time for you to use it. By the time you see that it is shoaling, you are already stuck because you are going too fast to stop or turn in time. Sounds like a regular depth sounder would work just as well for you -- just set it to show the depth below the keel. We set our depth alarm to go off when we have 5' below the keel, so we start paying attention then. Then, when it gets below 2 or 3 feet, we begin to pay close attention and slow down. Something like that could work for you too. At $180/yr, $1500 would cover enough annual SeaTow membership charges to last well past the time the sonar unit stops working.

[rslifkin]

Forward looking sonar is nice in concept, but all of the ones I've looked at are of questionable utility unless you have a very deep draft boat. Most can only see about 8x depth forward, so in 8 feet of water with the transducer 2 feet below the surface, you'd only see 48 feet ahead. Unless you're absolutely crawling forward, that's not enough distance to be useful for avoiding grounding.

It's unfortunately still at the point where further improvement is needed before it's a tool worth adding to most of our boats.

[Annie in WA]

We had a forward looking sonar transducer mounted forward of the keel for many years. It came in handy negotiating tricky entrances many times. It was not very useful in ordinary passages since the distance forward was limited. Perhaps they are better now ours was a Probe installed in the late 90s. So going slow when you suspect thin water it was great. I always put on a mask and dove in after the straps were on for haulout. We refit and removed the unit and still miss it sometimes but not enough to reinstall. Used it for 10 years and was happy with the limited benefits but nothing is without limits. Fair Wines

[Jim Cate]

I've posted many times re the Interphase Probe, and wish it was still available.

But in reference to your fear of damage from travel lift straps... well, we mark the hull at the waterline with the proper location of said straps, and the operator simply lines up with them. No worries, mate!

Jim

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I've posted many times re the Interphase Probe, and wish it was still available.

But in reference to your fear of damage from travel lift straps... well, we mark the hull at the waterline with the proper location of said straps, and the operator simply lines up with them. No worries, mate!

Just so!

[hscrugby]

Nice.
This is our first big boat, so didn't really think about the obvious solution of just paint a mark like "no lift" to keep it safe.
Whether I get that one or just a second device I don't like only having one depth finding device on the boat.

[DeValency]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I've posted many times re the Interphase Probe, and wish it was still available.

But in reference to your fear of damage from travel lift straps... well, we mark the hull at the waterline with the proper location of said straps, and the operator simply lines up with them. No worries, mate!

Jim

I have the exact same Interphase scanning probe (forward to vertical scan) and it still survive, even after few travelift belts were placed right under it while hauling, when I was away and the yard ignored the lifting marks.

Also have the standard B&G depth sounder - both are in front of the keel of course.

To me, a forward scanning sonar was an absolute must when sailing in the Bahamas and the ICW.

[Stewie12]

I had used looking sonar for many years. Unless we were moving very slowly it was pretty much useless and so we relied on the depth sounder to keep us from running aground.

[SV__Grace]

We remove ours and install the plug (that comes with it) for hauling out.

[Davidhoy]

Originally Posted by hscrugby

I've got a Hans Christian 33t.
Instead of bouncing off of sandbars to find them, I'd like to upgrade to a MUCH better sonar setup.
Right now all she has is a depth finder. I was looking at the Panoptix setup.
But since she's full keel, the suggested mounting point is forward of the keel.
I'm nervous about this sticking down in front and getting ripped off when I haul out for bottom paint etc. At 1500$ for the transducer, I'd rather NOT have to replace it ever haul out from a strap smashing it. Or worse, having a strap smash it on splash and lead to a leak.

https://static.garmincdn.com/en/prod...455829db99.jpg

I have a deep-keel version of the Catalina 470, and my draft is a hair under 8ft. I installed the Garmin PS51-TH forward scan sonar on my boat, and have been very happy with its functionality. It's not perfect, and it obviously does not replace the need for cautious navigation, but it does help reduce the anxiety of traversing unfamiliar areas of skinny water. Be aware that when in some other boat's wake, the turbulence and aeration of the water tends to negatively impact the sonar.

Mine is mounted forward of my keel, but my keel is more of a fin design, so it's not as far forward as where yours might be. I replace the transducer with a blanking plug when I'm not actively using it, and most definitely if I'm being hauled. The transducer sticks out quite a bit, so I'll probably remove it on longer passages to not only reduce drag, but more importantly reduce the potential for a piece of flotsam from smashing it and possibly damaging the through hull fitting itself. The fitting is a pretty beefy piece of stainless steel, which does give one a bit of comfort in that area.

Regards,
David

[barnakiel]

Well.


Looking at the design in the picture, it seems to be of the kind that you can retrieve before haul-out and plug with a blank one.




b.

[ussvdharma]

Your transducer wont get trashed unless you run into something.....install the forward looking sonar Fantasic piece ogf gerar...gives you one more safety feature and ability to find your outboard if it drops over the siode.
de W7KFI Susan ....ussvdharma