[wristwister]

I'm looking at where to mount the depth transducer on the inside of the hull on my Tartan 30. Right in front of the skeg would be a good location, but there's a very thick spline right there, and getting access down there is a *****. If I move laterally up the hull from that point, I've got a perfect spot that would be just below the waterline. But the hull curves up at that point. As long as the transducer is kept reasonably horizontal and is well potted onto the hull with epoxy, does it matter that the hull it's pulsing through is at an angle?

 

[CharlzO]

Nope, as long as you have a good , air-free mounting that's horizontal, with nothing breaking up the signal through the hull, then the angle won't matter. The one thing to remember though, is if it's just below the waterline at level, then it might NOT be under water level on certain tacks. Obviously center is better, but just make sure wherever you put it, it'll be as best as you can get it to keep in the water as best as you can.

Granted, if you're heeling that much, probably won't be THAT worried about accuracy until you're getting closer to shore, and leveling out. But just throwing it out there

 

[rlettie4]

If you buy a wax toilet bowl ring at the hardware store you can seat the transducer in the wax and test the location before using the epoxy. On my O'day 25 I placed it centerline just forward of the keel. It worked so well I just left it in the wax. It's been that way for 3 years with no issues.

 

[MarkSF]

If you look at the airmar website, and the specs for their various sensors, they show the allowable mounting angles. The sailboat sensors have quite a wide fan beam, left to right. They seem to work fine with the boat heeled, so I assume they base the depth reading on the earliest reflection.

I would like to have the sensor well forward, to get the earliest warning of shallow water. Mine is under the v berth, just left of the centre line.

 

[wristwister]

Thanks for the quick responses guys. Sounds like it'll be fine, and I like the idea of using the toilet bowl wax before committing to epoxy.