The new boat I'm thinking of buying is a deep vee. At the bottom of the
vee, as it were, is a small flat "pad." The pad serves several functions
which I won't get into here.

Thus, if you look at the stern of the boat from outside the hull, you
see a shape sort of like this:

\_/

The pad is about three inches wide. On the inside of the boat, a piece
of marine ply is epoxied to the fiberglass hull, and then the ply is
fiberglassed. Attached to the fiberglass is the bilge pump and its float.

There is room right there to drill through the hull bottom and install
a straight shooting down fishfinder/depthfinder/temp gauge transducer.
We'd make the ply circle hole a bit larger than the transducer and then
epoxy the ply edges, just for insurance.

The question is this: would a through hull like this be "mo' betta'"
than the usual stern mount transducer in terms of accuracy? There are
several transducers available that barely protrude from the bottom, so I
am not worried about interfering with the stream of water hitting the
engine's lower unit under water. Do through hull transducers tend to
fail at a higher rate than transom mounts? Are there other
considerations I should ponder?

Price is not an issue: there's really not much difference in pricing
between a good transom mount and the through hull.

Thanks.

On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:22:49 -0400, HK wrote:

Price is not an issue: there's really not much difference in pricing
between a good transom mount and the through hull.

As long as the transducer makes contact with clean water, there is no
difference between the two systems. The key is to keep the transducer
in the water flow and not where air and foam can interrupt the sonar
signal.

It's really a matter of appearance.

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:22:49 -0400, HK wrote:

Price is not an issue: there's really not much difference in pricing
between a good transom mount and the through hull.

As long as the transducer makes contact with clean water, there is no
difference between the two systems. The key is to keep the transducer
in the water flow and not where air and foam can interrupt the sonar
signal.

It's really a matter of appearance.


Ahh. Good. I'm leaning towards the through hull, to avoid wires on the
transom.

HK wrote:
Are there other considerations I should ponder?

These days, I assume my boat will outlast its electronics so I try to
avoid major surgery or permanent type mountings if I can. In fact, I
have an old through hull transducer, no longer in use, that I'll have
to remove at some point, leaving a rather large hole to repair.

Just a thought.

Rick

lid wrote:
HK wrote:
Are there other considerations I should ponder?

These days, I assume my boat will outlast its electronics so I try to
avoid major surgery or permanent type mountings if I can. In fact, I
have an old through hull transducer, no longer in use, that I'll have
to remove at some point, leaving a rather large hole to repair.

Just a thought.

Rick


Yes, it is, and it is one I am considering. Though one can usually
replace one through hull transducer with another with either a little or
a moderate amount of trouble.

In article ,
says...

The new boat I'm thinking of buying is a deep vee. At the bottom of the
vee, as it were, is a small flat "pad." The pad serves several functions
which I won't get into here.

Have you considered just shooting through the hull without a hole?
There are a number of methods used that, although they may not be as
efficient as when in contact with water, would save you from having to
create a thru hull.

You'd lose the paddle wheel but forego a hassle. Just a thought.

jps

On Wed, 4 Jul 2007 23:11:32 -0700, jps wrote:

In article ,
says...

The new boat I'm thinking of buying is a deep vee. At the bottom of the
vee, as it were, is a small flat "pad." The pad serves several functions
which I won't get into here.

Have you considered just shooting through the hull without a hole?
There are a number of methods used that, although they may not be as
efficient as when in contact with water, would save you from having to
create a thru hull.

You'd lose the paddle wheel but forego a hassle. Just a thought.

I've done all three and would dismiss shooting through the hull as the
worst of the three.

jps wrote:
In article ,
says...
The new boat I'm thinking of buying is a deep vee. At the bottom of the
vee, as it were, is a small flat "pad." The pad serves several functions
which I won't get into here.

Have you considered just shooting through the hull without a hole?
There are a number of methods used that, although they may not be as
efficient as when in contact with water, would save you from having to
create a thru hull.

You'd lose the paddle wheel but forego a hassle. Just a thought.

jps


It's not really a hassle, and you lose quite a bit via "shooting through
the hull."

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:22:49 -0400, HK wrote:

Price is not an issue: there's really not much difference in pricing
between a good transom mount and the through hull.

As long as the transducer makes contact with clean water, there is no
difference between the two systems. The key is to keep the transducer
in the water flow and not where air and foam can interrupt the sonar
signal.

It's really a matter of appearance.

I have heard that it is tougher to get clean water with a transom mount.
I have always just shot thru the glass, because it is only a depth
finder, and not a fish finder, I have never had a problem. The first
time I did this, my marina told me they shot fish finders thru the hull,
and as long as there are not voids in the fiberglass (ie solid glass)
they never have problems shooting thru the glass.

On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:28:55 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers III"
wrote:

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:22:49 -0400, HK wrote:

Price is not an issue: there's really not much difference in pricing
between a good transom mount and the through hull.

As long as the transducer makes contact with clean water, there is no
difference between the two systems. The key is to keep the transducer
in the water flow and not where air and foam can interrupt the sonar
signal.

It's really a matter of appearance.

I have heard that it is tougher to get clean water with a transom mount.
I have always just shot thru the glass, because it is only a depth
finder, and not a fish finder, I have never had a problem. The first
time I did this, my marina told me they shot fish finders thru the hull,
and as long as there are not voids in the fiberglass (ie solid glass)
they never have problems shooting thru the glass.

My Ranger has a very odd transom and I don't have a problem with clean
water - even in turns. It's all in how you set it up.

Through glass is never going to be as sensitive and, although it's not
happened to me, can distort the returning echo giving a false depth
reading. Note that it's never happened to me.