vic008
Well-Known Member
And install a Chartplotter instead.,(depthsounder never prevented me from running aground in the past).What are the thoughts please.
No log or depth gear?
- Thread starter vic008
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Kelpie
Well-Known Member
I never removed the blanking plug from my NASA paddlewheel log all last year. The GPS is always much more accurate. So if I didn't already have a hole in the hull, I wouldn't see the point in making one. Perhaps this is different if you sail in areas of significant tidal stream and want to know your speed through the water rather than SOG (although I'd recommend a more accurate log than the NASA one).
As to the sounder... well you could go old school with a lead line I guess... but I wouldn't be without a proper sounder. A plotter is absolutely no replacement. Although, again, it perhaps depends on where you sail. (I need to be able to creep into rocky anchorages so I'm not going to rely on centuries-old charts transposed to a plotter).
VicS
Well-Known Member
Log only relevant if you want to know speed through the water eg for sail trimming. Otherwise a gps or plotter is more useful for navigation. Maybe a hand held gps as backup to the plotter.
I think I would always fit an echo sounder... it's much more convenient than a lead line!
prv
Well-Known Member
It may depend where you sail (steep-to coasts where if you can't see it you can't hit it), but sailing without a depth sounder makes me nervous.
Pete
Pete
Gordonmc
Well-Known Member
The only electronics I paid serious money for was forward looking sonar and DSC VHF.
The rest are nice-to-have. I can tell wind direction, more or less, by looking at my pennant. I think I know intuitively when to reef without knowing the wind speed to the nearest knot.
Speed through water, well if I look out the back those ripples tell me I am moving and the GPS confirms. Apart from which every transducer I ever had was clogged within a couple of weeks of launch.
A depth sounder, however, is an essential bit of safety gear.
The rest are nice-to-have. I can tell wind direction, more or less, by looking at my pennant. I think I know intuitively when to reef without knowing the wind speed to the nearest knot.
Speed through water, well if I look out the back those ripples tell me I am moving and the GPS confirms. Apart from which every transducer I ever had was clogged within a couple of weeks of launch.
A depth sounder, however, is an essential bit of safety gear.
sarabande
Well-Known Member
Back in the early 1970s there was a RIN working group on minimum standards for sailing boat instrumentation. Lots of worthy individuals meeting at the Royal Thames to swap stories of what breed of dove was best for assessing imminent landfall, how they could tell which estuary they were approaching from the type of leaves being carried out on the ebb, and to gain a single line fix by identifying decommisioned lighthouses from the moss growing on the leeward side.
Where was I ? Ah, yes, instrumentation. I think we came to the conclusion that it would be impossible, and indeed dangerous, to specify a minimum set as this would lead to Legal Ramifications and probably the need for Insurance. The concensus on the most useful piece of kit, apart from a long stick, was for the echo sounder, as it was so useful in refining the DR position, or working up a new Fix from a line of soundings.
There was general agreement that a lodestone was the most important device...
Where was I ? Ah, yes, instrumentation. I think we came to the conclusion that it would be impossible, and indeed dangerous, to specify a minimum set as this would lead to Legal Ramifications and probably the need for Insurance. The concensus on the most useful piece of kit, apart from a long stick, was for the echo sounder, as it was so useful in refining the DR position, or working up a new Fix from a line of soundings.
There was general agreement that a lodestone was the most important device...
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john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
For those who ever start to think that a plotter is a replacement for a log and an echo sounder I hope you always navigate in areas where the charting is hyper accurate and the depths never change, there's no tide or current and you never worry about sail trim or which tack to sail on etc etc etc.
Perhaps a plotter might be best described as, "A really clever aid to navigation that can delude you into thinking you always know exactly where you are and where all the dangers are?"
Perhaps a plotter might be best described as, "A really clever aid to navigation that can delude you into thinking you always know exactly where you are and where all the dangers are?"
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