$70 Depth finder!

[LeoJo]

Walmart online has on sale the Cuda 242 for $70.  Good graphics, easy to mount, I'm putting the transducer inside the hull 6" infront of the keel with epoxy but was thinking I would try auto body filler...anyone have experience using that?

[s/v Faith]

auto body filler...anyone have experience using that?

No, but I don't see why it would not work.  Polyvinylester with talc should do fine, you can have it wired up, set it in place and probably know if it will 'see' the bottom before the mix hardens.


  Let us know how it works out, good luck.

[Grime]

LoeJo,
I have the same depth finder. I can't get mine to read correctly. I have it about 12" in front of the keel. Mine is sitting in toilet bowl wax as I didn't want to epoxy in until I knew it would shoot the hull.  Make sure there a no bubbles as this will cause it not to work.

David

[CharlieJ]

I've talked to people who used peanut butter!!!

But set the transducer on top of a baggie full of water, in your chosen spot, before you glue it down. Some spots work better than others and if there should happen to be an air bubble where you intend to put it, it won't work.

Once you have found the spot, then glue it down. Humminbird by the way strongly recommends epoxy.

[Tim]

Plumbers Putty will work for a temporary set also.

[AdriftAtSea]

I'm a big fan of using a piece of 4" PVC pipe instead of Epoxy.  The pipe is epoxied to the hull in the right location and then filled with mineral oil.  The transducer is then mounted in a end cap, that goes over the filled PVC pipe.  I prefer using a cleanout fitting, and attaching the transducer to a cleanout cap.  This allows the transducer to be fairly well protected, well-mounted, yet easily removed for repair or replacement.

[CapnK]

Welcome aboard LeoJo!

In addition to all of the above methods, using cheap latex or acrylic caulk can give you a semi-permanent bed for the transducer. As with the above, make sure there aren't any bubbles. I have a fishfinder from WalMart for depth sounder use also. Just makes sense, and as a bonus, you can tell if dinner is around. :)

[Chattcatdaddy]

Reviving this old thread.

How important would everyone rate having a good depth finder?

When I had my Cal-29 in the Florida Keys I didn`t have a working depthfinder. Ran aground a few times but I really don`t think a depthfinder would have made a difference. Better boathandling and judgement sure would have helped. ::)

If the depth finder could read the depth 20ft in front of my boat it sure would be useful.

[CharlieJ]

20 feet in front eh?

That's relatively simple.

Get yourself a cheap spincasting rod and reel.A short stubby one will do fine. Put a sinker on the end of the line. At whatever depth you need (your draft + maybe 6 inches) above that sinker clip  on a bobber. Make sure the bobber is small enough so the sinker will pull it under- or the sinker is big enough, either one.


Cast the sinker out in front of the boat-If the bobber floats, it ain't deep enough for you- if the bobber sinks, there's enough water there.

Works from a dinghy too,to search out a channel

Tehani also carries, and we make frequent use of, an old fashioned leadline. We've felt our way into tight anchorages all along the Gulf Coast with that.

Of course we also have and use an electronic depth sounder- when it works it's fine, when it doesn't, it's leadline time. Laura informed me the other day that right now,it isn't working >:(

[Marc]

I have read about them rven recall reding how eo make onen but for the life of me can't remember.  Carlie, could you refresh my memory?  I hope all is well for Laura.  Hope to see toy out there some day soon.  It's getting close fro Lorinda.  Marc

[CharlieJ]

How to make a lead line?

I used a BIG fishing sinker-about 12 or 16 ozs, don't recall which- One of those with no metal-just an eye cast into the top.

Cut the bottom off flat and make a small depression in it it so mud has a chance to stick there. That's so you can "read the bottom"

Then I Added about 25feet of 3 strand cotton line, with yarn tied through a strand every fathom. Those are green.

At the 4 foot foot mark I put  a red yarn. Our loaded draft is 3'6" so I use four feet as our "go-no go" depth.

I stand on the bow as Laura runs the boat slowly in toward where we wish to anchor. We pre determine a "bail-out" direction so she knows which way to go. Since I'm right handed we usually come in from the starboard side and I cast the lead over the bow a few feet out front. AS long as that red yarn goes under we're good- if it DOESN'T go under, I tell her to "bail out" and we try again.

The lead line lives in a canvas pouch screwed to the side of a storage box in the starboard aft cockpit locker-  nothing else goes in there.. It's wrapped around a plywood handle so it is easy to access and to use

Laura was out touring Orange yesterday and had a great morning at a  museum she found there.

Here's a cut and paste of a post she made on TSBB yesterday evening-She's posting from an IPhoine and typing is a bit too  slow to  post in several spots-


"Two well-dressed ladies climb the steps to the art museum with an air of confidence. I am here earlier than I expected. I hear a clank and the hum of a motor. The steel mesh safety curtains rise up then disappear into the marble overhang. The ladies smile then usher me inside out of the heat.

I had to explain why the other lady in the car was not coming into the museum with me. She had given me a ride from the park by the river. I came on a sailboat and that is where it is anchored. Their eyes light up with surprise. "Where did you sail from?" - - - "By yourself?" - - - They beam and giggle then in their delight they make me tell "Bob", the guard how I got there.

His eyes twinkle like Santa's and he smiles as he leads me to the first gallery. It is a room full of pistols and revolvers they have on loan from the Gene Autrey Museum. He offers me a flashlight to shine on the exhibits so I can see the elaborate craftsmanship. The museums's lighting is really not adequate. As he walks away I hear him mumble something about it being nice to see people getting out of "the box". I cannot repress a smile. "

[TJim]

More important than GPS because you still have to tie the gps to charts and where I've been sailing, they are all wrong.  The GPS will get you with in a half a
mile, or so dependably, at best but the depth's are still off. I try to never enter an unknown anchorage for the first time before sun-up.  Wish me luck, the only places I've ever been aground is the Great Salt Lake and in the La Paz, Baja Sur Channel just after dark.  Got off by riding the boom to get her heeled.  That was inside both the red and green.  I consider the depth sounder to be right up there with the compass.  TJ

[newt]

Great idea on the fishing pole and lead line. I will set one up. TJ- aground in GSL- that chart  is great! Just cause there is no GPS :)

[Shipscarver]

I loved the casting rod idea. I will start using that one. Thanks! :)

[Marc]

Thanks Charlie for the info on the lead line.  I really envy you and Laura.  There is a small chance that I will see you out there.  When the gallery gets fixed you will see just how far I have come.  I'm almost to the rigging poit.  Good luck and fair winds on your voyage.  Marc

[TJim]

Well, make sure you have a fishing license.

[CharlieJ]

Not required if there are no hooks on the line

[TJim]

Where I will be this time next week all you have to have is a rod aboard and a license is required for every person aboard! That would be Mexico. TJ

[Rick Westlake]

More important than GPS because you still have to tie the gps to charts and where I've been sailing, they are all wrong.  The GPS will get you with in a half a mile, or so dependably, at best but the depth's are still off. I try to never enter an unknown anchorage for the first time before sun-up.  Wish me luck, the only places I've ever been aground is the Great Salt Lake and in the La Paz, Baja Sur Channel just after dark.  Got off by riding the boom to get her heeled.  That was inside both the red and green.  I consider the depth sounder to be right up there with the compass.  TJ

I've just gotta ask (speaking from my profession of the past 36 years ....)

What geodetic datum is listed on your chart?  ???

Do you have the same geodetic datum set on your GPS?  :o

[Amgine]

<chuckles> Yes, geodetic datum is important. There's a nifty part of Boundary Bay... originally surveyed in 1906 iirc, the data was hand updated during WWII to a standard geodetic datum, then hand updated again in the 1980s, then the data was digitized into an ENC format. So the geodetic datum is the same as the one on my GPS.

Of course, no one went out and surveyed it and the changes that have happened in an estuarial bay in the past 100 years, and the shore bits are a bit off too.