Fitting Echopilot FLS on a wooden boat.

[DogStar]

Please forgive my ignorance folks, but I have looked up as far as I can, but still have a Q for y'all.

I plan to fit a depth sounder to my 40 foot pinnace whilst she is out of the water next month having her bum cleaned. I would love to fit an Echopilot FLS, but the transducer sleeves appear to have a maximum thread of 3" for the pro model. I don't think this will be enough.

Does anyone have any experience fitting one to a wooden hull?


<hr width=100% size=1>I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!

 

[Born_Free]

How thick is your bottom, sorry, I should have said hull. 3" should be plenty by the way, most wooden hulls are no more than 1" thick, battleships excepted, if you then allow 1/2" for the fairing, this should still leave more than enough for sealing and screwing on the backnut. Of course if you have a battleship, ask the manufacturers if they have an adapter or longer shafted version available. Failing that it would probably be possible to make up an extension yourself. There's all sorts of plastic pipe fittings available today from the plumbers merchants. Oh and don't forget to site the transponder and route the cable well away from your alternator(s). I've just had to sort this problem out on my own boat. It's not a particularly difficult job, only took me about an hour or so.
Good Luck.

<hr width=100% size=1>I have nothing to declare, except my genius
(Sorry Oscar)

 

[DogStar]

Many thanks for the reply. The hull is double diagonal oak on oak, which I believe is getting on for 3". I am going to have limited time to improvise while she is out of the water this time round, and definitely won't be able to go back and forth to the chandlery, so I might take the simpler route and fit an external transponder for a normal sounder, and leave the thru-hull fittings and the FLS 'til next year.

I liked very much the idea of seeing what was going on under her hull on my first trip in her. I'm bringing her back to London from the Isle of Wight in... wow, a week's time! To be honest, though, she'll be spending most of her time on rivers for this year, so the FLS wouldn't have seen that much use.

Cheers for the warning re. the alternator, BTW! One of the locations I had been considering had been pretty close.

<hr width=100% size=1>I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!

 

[ccscott49]

My hull is 1 3/4" thick, with quite an angle on the transducer, the pro one fit fine, even with fairing blocks. I doubt your hull is 3" thick, mine weighs 48 tons, with my hull on 57 feet, yours would need a shipyard to lift if 3" thick might be of course, but only way to find out is measure it. I would also talk to Echopilot themselves, they m,ay have a sloution for you, very helpful people!

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