I just spent the last 3 days sailing the Chincoteague Bay and Newport Bay.? I left from South Point across from Assategue and headed south to Virginia.? The bay is wide, but very shallow.? You needed to hug the western shoreline to find enough water.? The wind was great and the weather was even better!!? The mornings started out with a light breeze which continued to build throughout the day.? By mid-day the wind had picked up enough that I had to put in a reef.?? I know a lot of you don't get excited until?the winds begin to blow 20kts, but I prefer 10kts.? The storm clouds began to build so I headed for shelter.? I spent the rest of the day tied up to a small dock and met a few of the locals swimming at the hot spot.? The rain eventually came but was light and eventually ended by dinner time.? The next morning my son and I headed north to explore Newport Bay.? The winds were blowing from the?southwest so the ride back was quick and easy.? We sailed as far north in the bay as possible exploring the marshy areas.? Eventually the water became to shallow and we had to head back to find deeper water.? We found a quite cove with some private piers.? The building lots were never sold and developed so I tired?up and spent the night.? I made a mesh hatch cover for this trip which came in?very handy at night.? When the tide was out and the marsh mud shores were exposed the bugs come out!!!? Wow, you haven't lived until you wake up in the morning to the aroma of swamp mud.? I was affraid to make coffee in the morning for fear the whole cove would explode!!!? The next morning we finished exploring the coves and wildlife and then eventually headed back to South Point?to pull out and head home.? It was a great sail. I do have a?question for all you experience sailors.? I had installed a depth finder in my boat in preparation for this trip.? I placed the transponder in the forward hatch just forward of the ballast bump.? I read on the MSOG website that another boat owner located their transponder there and it worked well.? Well, I must have a cheap unit, because the transponder will not shoot through the hull, even though the manufacturer claims it will.??I ended up having to?rig a quick external mount?and place the transponder in the water just below the bow to get a reading.? Here's my questions.? What units do others have that actually will work as a thru hull unit.? Has anyone rigged a removable bracket so that they can mount the unit off the bow when in use and removed when on the trailer?? Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated. Thanks, Skip Campion "Wild Guppy" M-15 1982 #201??????????
Skip, Sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip! Enjoyed reading your report. I've also had trouble getting my dept sounder/fish finder to work reliably through the hull. My unit is a dual-frequency Eagle Cuda. It's a fish finder/depth sounder and reads battery voltage and water temp. (a nice unit other than not working reliably through the hull). While having the boat in a slip I tried a variety of locations and mounting techniques; I.e. sanding off the interior gelcoat, special epoxy, etc, etc. all with marginal results. Also, like you if I hang the transducer over the side of the boat it work amazingly well; reading reliably to several hundred feet. The best I have come up with (I have an M 17) is mounting the transducer submersed in water in the cavity just aft of the keel. The area Tom Smith referrers to as his "wine cellar". My take on all this is that the older single frequency units work better through a fiberglass hull. But am anxious to hear what experience others are having. Randy Graves On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 6:15 PM, <wcampion@aol.com> wrote:
I just spent the last 3 days sailing the Chincoteague Bay and Newport Bay.? I left from South Point across from Assategue and headed south to Virginia.? The bay is wide, but very shallow.? You needed to hug the western shoreline to find enough water.? The wind was great and the weather was even better!!? The mornings started out with a light breeze which continued to build throughout the day.? By mid-day the wind had picked up enough that I had to put in a reef.?? I know a lot of you don't get excited until?the winds begin to blow 20kts, but I prefer 10kts.? The storm clouds began to build so I headed for shelter.? I spent the rest of the day tied up to a small dock and met a few of the locals swimming at the hot spot.? The rain eventually came but was light and eventually ended by dinner time.? The next morning my son and I headed north to explore Newport Bay.? The winds were blowing from the?southwest so the ride back was quick and easy.? We sailed as far north in the bay as possible exploring the marshy areas.? Eventually the water became to shallow and we had to head back to find deeper water.? We found a quite cove with some private piers.? The building lots were never sold and developed so I tired?up and spent the night.? I made a mesh hatch cover for this trip which came in?very handy at night.? When the tide was out and the marsh mud shores were exposed the bugs come out!!!? Wow, you haven't lived until you wake up in the morning to the aroma of swamp mud.? I was affraid to make coffee in the morning for fear the whole cove would explode!!!? The next morning we finished exploring the coves and wildlife and then eventually headed back to South Point?to pull out and head home.? It was a great sail.
I do have a?question for all you experience sailors.? I had installed a depth finder in my boat in preparation for this trip.? I placed the transponder in the forward hatch just forward of the ballast bump.? I read on the MSOG website that another boat owner located their transponder there and it worked well.? Well, I must have a cheap unit, because the transponder will not shoot through the hull, even though the manufacturer claims it will.??I ended up having to?rig a quick external mount?and place the transponder in the water just below the bow to get a reading.? Here's my questions.? What units do others have that actually will work as a thru hull unit.? Has anyone rigged a removable bracket so that they can mount the unit off the bow when in use and removed when on the trailer?? Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated.
Thanks, Skip Campion "Wild Guppy" M-15 1982 #201?????????? _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
Randy, Would it be possible put the tranducer in a few inches of some type of gel in the cavity to get the same effect as water? I seem to recall a couple of years ago someone successfully mounting a tranducer in a blob of silicone, which might have some gel-like properties after it sets. Tom Jenkins ----- Original Message ----- From: "R.K.Graves" <rkgraves@gmail.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:56 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Chincoteague Bay/Newport Bay Cruise
Skip,
Sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip! Enjoyed reading your report.
I've also had trouble getting my dept sounder/fish finder to work reliably through the hull. My unit is a dual-frequency Eagle Cuda. It's a fish finder/depth sounder and reads battery voltage and water temp. (a nice unit other than not working reliably through the hull). While having the boat in a slip I tried a variety of locations and mounting techniques; I.e. sanding off the interior gelcoat, special epoxy, etc, etc. all with marginal results.
Also, like you if I hang the transducer over the side of the boat it work amazingly well; reading reliably to several hundred feet. The best I have come up with (I have an M 17) is mounting the transducer submersed in water in the cavity just aft of the keel. The area Tom Smith referrers to as his "wine cellar".
My take on all this is that the older single frequency units work better through a fiberglass hull. But am anxious to hear what experience others are having.
Randy Graves
On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 6:15 PM, <wcampion@aol.com> wrote:
I just spent the last 3 days sailing the Chincoteague Bay and Newport Bay.? I left from South Point across from Assategue and headed south to Virginia.? The bay is wide, but very shallow.? You needed to hug the western shoreline to find enough water.? The wind was great and the weather was even better!!? The mornings started out with a light breeze which continued to build throughout the day.? By mid-day the wind had picked up enough that I had to put in a reef.?? I know a lot of you don't get excited until?the winds begin to blow 20kts, but I prefer 10kts.? The storm clouds began to build so I headed for shelter.? I spent the rest of the day tied up to a small dock and met a few of the locals swimming at the hot spot.? The rain eventually came but was light and eventually ended by dinner time.? The next morning my son and I headed north to explore Newport Bay.? The winds were blowing from the?southwest so the ride back was quick and easy.? We sailed as far north in the bay as
possible exploring the marshy areas.? Eventually the water became to shallow and we had to head back to find deeper water.? We found a quite cove with some private piers.? The building lots were never sold and developed so I tired?up and spent the night.? I made a mesh hatch cover for this trip which came in?very handy at night.? When the tide was out and the marsh mud shores were exposed the bugs come out!!!? Wow, you haven't lived until you wake up in the morning to the aroma of swamp mud.? I was affraid to make coffee in the morning for fear the whole cove would explode!!!? The next morning we finished exploring the coves and wildlife and then eventually headed back to South Point?to pull out and head home.? It was a great sail.
I do have a?question for all you experience sailors.? I had installed a depth finder in my boat in preparation for this trip.? I placed the transponder in the forward hatch just forward of the ballast bump.? I read on the MSOG website that another boat owner located their transponder there and it worked well.? Well, I must have a cheap unit, because the transponder will not shoot through the hull, even though the manufacturer claims it will.??I ended up having to?rig a quick external mount?and place the transponder in the water just below the bow to get a reading.? Here's my questions.? What units do others have that actually will work as a thru hull unit.? Has anyone rigged a removable bracket so that they can mount the unit off the bow when in use and removed when on the trailer?? Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated.
Thanks, Skip Campion "Wild Guppy" M-15 1982 #201?????????? _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
Tom, I think so. I had read an article in one of the boating magazines a long while back that described suspending the depth sounder/fish finder transducer in mineral oil. The article talked about trimming, fitting, and siliconing, something like a Tupperware container to the inside of the hull, filling it with mineral oil, and suspending the transducer in the oil. One of the goals of the article was to allow the transducer to pivot with the heeling of the boat, so that the transducer always pointed down. In my experiments one of the things I tried was sanding off the gelcoat in a flat area of the inside of the hull and securing the transducer with silicone. In doing research I had read it was best to use 100% pure silicone, and be sure to avoid bubbles, both of which I attempted to do. Another article I read talked about using Silly Putty to temp. mount the transducer in different locations in an effort to find the best place to get a reliable signal. This does work short-term and is a pretty cool idea! Everything short of hanging the transducer over the side of the boat has given me so-so results. By so-so I mean the unit will most-often measure depths between around 15 ft and 60 ft. Anything outside those ranges is unreliable; reading ----- no reading --- odd reading --- no reading --- probably accurate reading --- no reading --- and so on. Hanging the unit directly in the water I can measure reliably from a few feet to 600 ft+. It has been because it works soooo good hanging the transducer directly in the water that causes me to continue to try and find a way to get this unit to work from inside the hull! My "plan b" (actually, more like "plan-n") is to either replace the unit with a single freq. one and re-test, or mount the transducer on the stern. Not as useful to read the depth behind you but better than not reading the depth at all. Would be great to hear from others who have had success Randy Graves M17 #410 On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Tom Jenkins<tjenk@gte.net> wrote:
Randy, Would it be possible put the tranducer in a few inches of some type of gel in the cavity to get the same effect as water? I seem to recall a couple of years ago someone successfully mounting a tranducer in a blob of silicone, which might have some gel-like properties after it sets.
Tom Jenkins
----- Original Message ----- From: "R.K.Graves" <rkgraves@gmail.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:56 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Chincoteague Bay/Newport Bay Cruise
Skip,
Sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip! Enjoyed reading your report.
I've also had trouble getting my dept sounder/fish finder to work reliably through the hull. My unit is a dual-frequency Eagle Cuda. It's a fish finder/depth sounder and reads battery voltage and water temp. (a nice unit other than not working reliably through the hull). While having the boat in a slip I tried a variety of locations and mounting techniques; I.e. sanding off the interior gelcoat, special epoxy, etc, etc. all with marginal results.
Also, like you if I hang the transducer over the side of the boat it work amazingly well; reading reliably to several hundred feet. The best I have come up with (I have an M 17) is mounting the transducer submersed in water in the cavity just aft of the keel. The area Tom Smith referrers to as his "wine cellar".
My take on all this is that the older single frequency units work better through a fiberglass hull. But am anxious to hear what experience others are having.
Randy Graves
On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 6:15 PM, <wcampion@aol.com> wrote:
I just spent the last 3 days sailing the Chincoteague Bay and Newport Bay.? I left from South Point across from Assategue and headed south to Virginia.? The bay is wide, but very shallow.? You needed to hug the western shoreline to find enough water.? The wind was great and the weather was even better!!? The mornings started out with a light breeze which continued to build throughout the day.? By mid-day the wind had picked up enough that I had to put in a reef.?? I know a lot of you don't get excited until?the winds begin to blow 20kts, but I prefer 10kts.? The storm clouds began to build so I headed for shelter.? I spent the rest of the day tied up to a small dock and met a few of the locals swimming at the hot spot.? The rain eventually came but was light and eventually ended by dinner time.? The next morning my son and I headed north to explore Newport Bay.? The winds were blowing from the?southwest so the ride back was quick and easy.? We sailed as far north in the bay as
possible exploring the marshy areas.? Eventually the water became to shallow and we had to head back to find deeper water.? We found a quite cove with some private piers.? The building lots were never sold and developed so I tired?up and spent the night.? I made a mesh hatch cover for this trip which came in?very handy at night.? When the tide was out and the marsh mud shores were exposed the bugs come out!!!? Wow, you haven't lived until you wake up in the morning to the aroma of swamp mud.? I was affraid to make coffee in the morning for fear the whole cove would explode!!!? The next morning we finished exploring the coves and wildlife and then eventually headed back to South Point?to pull out and head home.? It was a great sail.
I do have a?question for all you experience sailors.? I had installed a depth finder in my boat in preparation for this trip.? I placed the transponder in the forward hatch just forward of the ballast bump.? I read on the MSOG website that another boat owner located their transponder there and it worked well.? Well, I must have a cheap unit, because the transponder will not shoot through the hull, even though the manufacturer claims it will.??I ended up having to?rig a quick external mount?and place the transponder in the water just below the bow to get a reading.? Here's my questions.? What units do others have that actually will work as a thru hull unit.? Has anyone rigged a removable bracket so that they can mount the unit off the bow when in use and removed when on the trailer?? Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated.
Thanks, Skip Campion "Wild Guppy" M-15 1982 #201?????????? _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
Randy & Tom: I mounted my depth sensor inside the hull just forward of the keel, used silicone to bed it in, and it seems to work fine. I'll take a picture some time and send it. It seems to work from about 3 feet to 200, except when the bottom is soft or weedy. The depth sounder is a kinda cheap one. --Gary ☺ ⎈ On Jul 24, 2009, at 3:24 PM, R.K.Graves wrote:
Tom,
I think so. I had read an article in one of the boating magazines a long while back that described suspending the depth sounder/fish finder transducer in mineral oil. The article talked about trimming, fitting, and siliconing, something like a Tupperware container to the inside of the hull, filling it with mineral oil, and suspending the transducer in the oil. One of the goals of the article was to allow the transducer to pivot with the heeling of the boat, so that the transducer always pointed down.
In my experiments one of the things I tried was sanding off the gelcoat in a flat area of the inside of the hull and securing the transducer with silicone. In doing research I had read it was best to use 100% pure silicone, and be sure to avoid bubbles, both of which I attempted to do.
Another article I read talked about using Silly Putty to temp. mount the transducer in different locations in an effort to find the best place to get a reliable signal. This does work short-term and is a pretty cool idea!
Everything short of hanging the transducer over the side of the boat has given me so-so results. By so-so I mean the unit will most-often measure depths between around 15 ft and 60 ft. Anything outside those ranges is unreliable; reading ----- no reading --- odd reading --- no reading --- probably accurate reading --- no reading --- and so on.
Hanging the unit directly in the water I can measure reliably from a few feet to 600 ft+. It has been because it works soooo good hanging the transducer directly in the water that causes me to continue to try and find a way to get this unit to work from inside the hull!
My "plan b" (actually, more like "plan-n") is to either replace the unit with a single freq. one and re-test, or mount the transducer on the stern. Not as useful to read the depth behind you but better than not reading the depth at all.
Would be great to hear from others who have had success
Randy Graves M17 #410
On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Tom Jenkins<tjenk@gte.net> wrote:
Randy, Would it be possible put the tranducer in a few inches of some type of gel in the cavity to get the same effect as water? I seem to recall a couple of years ago someone successfully mounting a tranducer in a blob of silicone, which might have some gel-like properties after it sets.
Tom Jenkins
----- Original Message ----- From: "R.K.Graves" <rkgraves@gmail.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:56 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: Chincoteague Bay/Newport Bay Cruise
Skip,
Sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip! Enjoyed reading your report.
I've also had trouble getting my dept sounder/fish finder to work reliably through the hull. My unit is a dual-frequency Eagle Cuda. It's a fish finder/depth sounder and reads battery voltage and water temp. (a nice unit other than not working reliably through the hull). While having the boat in a slip I tried a variety of locations and mounting techniques; I.e. sanding off the interior gelcoat, special epoxy, etc, etc. all with marginal results.
Also, like you if I hang the transducer over the side of the boat it work amazingly well; reading reliably to several hundred feet. The best I have come up with (I have an M 17) is mounting the transducer submersed in water in the cavity just aft of the keel. The area Tom Smith referrers to as his "wine cellar".
My take on all this is that the older single frequency units work better through a fiberglass hull. But am anxious to hear what experience others are having.
Randy Graves
On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 6:15 PM, <wcampion@aol.com> wrote:
I just spent the last 3 days sailing the Chincoteague Bay and Newport Bay.? I left from South Point across from Assategue and headed south to Virginia.? The bay is wide, but very shallow.? You needed to hug the western shoreline to find enough water.? The wind was great and the weather was even better!!? The mornings started out with a light breeze which continued to build throughout the day.? By mid-day the wind had picked up enough that I had to put in a reef.?? I know a lot of you don't get excited until?the winds begin to blow 20kts, but I prefer 10kts.? The storm clouds began to build so I headed for shelter.? I spent the rest of the day tied up to a small dock and met a few of the locals swimming at the hot spot.? The rain eventually came but was light and eventually ended by dinner time.? The next morning my son and I headed north to explore Newport Bay.? The winds were blowing from the?southwest so the ride back was quick and easy.? We sailed as far north in the bay as
possible exploring the marshy areas.? Eventually the water became to shallow and we had to head back to find deeper water.? We found a quite cove with some private piers.? The building lots were never sold and developed so I tired?up and spent the night.? I made a mesh hatch cover for this trip which came in?very handy at night.? When the tide was out and the marsh mud shores were exposed the bugs come out!!!? Wow, you haven't lived until you wake up in the morning to the aroma of swamp mud.? I was affraid to make coffee in the morning for fear the whole cove would explode!!!? The next morning we finished exploring the coves and wildlife and then eventually headed back to South Point?to pull out and head home.? It was a great sail.
I do have a?question for all you experience sailors.? I had installed a depth finder in my boat in preparation for this trip.? I placed the transponder in the forward hatch just forward of the ballast bump.? I read on the MSOG website that another boat owner located their transponder there and it worked well.? Well, I must have a cheap unit, because the transponder will not shoot through the hull, even though the manufacturer claims it will.??I ended up having to?rig a quick external mount?and place the transponder in the water just below the bow to get a reading.? Here's my questions.? What units do others have that actually will work as a thru hull unit.? Has anyone rigged a removable bracket so that they can mount the unit off the bow when in use and removed when on the trailer?? Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated.
Thanks, Skip Campion "Wild Guppy" M-15 1982 #201?????????? _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
participants (4)
-
Gary M Hyde -
R.K.Graves -
Tom Jenkins -
wcampion＠aol.com