echo sounders

[Sgroves]

after listening to me whingeing about running aground, (just briefly i'd like to point out), some bloke at the marina was talking about "forward or look-ahead sounders. Has any-one else come across this? Cos as a self-confessed tackle tart, and with a talent for finding the shallowest water embedded in my DNA, it could just revolutionise my cruising!

Steve

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[oldsaltoz]

G'day Steve,

Look ahead sonar has been available for many years, I recall using it on a trawler many years ago, a bit hard to get used to at first but it did work.

This technology has gone a long way in the last 3 years; they are excellent on displacement boats, but I have not seen one that works well on planing hulls, if anyone has one that works consistently at low and high speed I would appreciate some information.

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[BrendanS]

I've just won one, MBM competition. Delivered this week. Not too sure whether to fit it at moment, as it requires fitting through the hull, with a small amount protruding into water under hull (designed to get knocked of in case of impact, without leaving gaping hole). Not yet decided about drilling hole in otherwise perfectly good hull.
If I do install it, I'll let you know how I get on

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[qsiv]

The FLS series are great .. and certainly give peace of mind.

My only real reservation is the fact it protrudes into the water flow - and I dont like the imapct that would have on a high performance sailing boat - now if they had a retractable transducer I'd fit one immediately on the new race boat ... (or if I could build it into the keel stub and fair it in)

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[oldsaltoz]

Congratulations and thanks

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[BrendanS]

The one I've got is retractable.....at least in that you can pull it out and quickly get screw cap on. You'd probably want a bung to hand just in case


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[qsiv]

I'm sure the one I 'met' was fixed... at least retractable is partly there.

The new boat is scaring me just a little (particularly for shallow water racing like the Solent), as the keel is _very_ vulnerable (and draft is 8' 6") - but I cant entertain the drag - hence the thought of fairing the transducer into the keel structure - there is a little 'blister' that protrudes an inch or two below the bottom and contains the hinge (the keel cants), and I was thinking of letting it into the fwd surfaces of the blister.

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[hlb]

Cant see it would make much difference at twenty knots. Just ping, ping crunch. Even at eight knots you would have to scen at the thing all the time!!

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Haydn

 

[BrendanS]

Interesting!

I can give you the name of someone to talk to from the company that sent me mine. Really helpful chap, and has even offered to upgrade me from the standard to pro transducer free of charge if I like. He could at least tell you if what you are considering is feasible

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[BrendanS]

Haydn

These things look ahead 100- 150 metres. With depth alarm turned on, would give you plenty of time to pull back on throttle to have a look at the display and see what's ahead.

Though why you'd be doing 20 knots where you could go aground?

More likely to be doing a lot less. I'd certainly have found one of these useful in the past crawling into areas where I've bounced the skeg or prop. Being able to 'see ahead' rather than an echo sounder telling me what depth I was in a couple of seconds ago quite appeals.

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[qsiv]

That would be really useful - I havent managed to get hold of someone with real engineering knowledge so far.

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[BrendanS]

See pm, sent you contact details
website is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.echopilot.com>http://www.echopilot.com</A>


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[ccscott49]

I've got one on Englander, the FLS silver, excellent bit of kit, will look forward 100-150 meters, great for nosing into shallow areas, but not a lot of use at high speed, as Haydn, says, ping, ping crunch, but if your navigation is that bad, you shouldn't be going like a bat out of hell anyway. Don't let it get any fouling on it, it stops it immediately! Well after it's had time to grow anyway. Just fitted the ultrasonic log part of the system, I'll let you know it's performance/value later.

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[hlb]

Didn't know you could get 100/150 yds out of one of them things Colin. Might be worth it after all.

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Haydn

 

[echopilot]

Hello everybody - first I should say that we are the manufacturers of Echopilot Forward sonars, so you may think that we are biased!
You have raised some interesting questions so I thought that we should try to answer them.
We have been making FLS since 1992, the range varies (according to model) from 100 metres to 200 metres forward. You are right to say that at speed this is not enough warning - though its still a lot more warning than a downward looking sounder. Hopefully you would not be speeding through unfamiliar waters! We are launching in 2004 a new instrument which looks over a kilometre ahead - this is based on military sonar and it will be more expensive, but however fast you were going you should have time to stop.
The bubbles and turbulence that flow past the transducer when on the plane are always a problem to sonar- though the extent varies with mounting position. We test all our FLS on a 42' semi displacement boat and still get good performance at 19 or 20 knots, so you can see that they do not drop out at really low speeds.
The transducer does protrude an inch or two (according to type - standard or professional) - less drag than a propellor!
Please let me know if I can explain anything else.
Best Regards,
Susan Phillips

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[duncan]

thank you for coming on the forum and providing the information clearly.


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