Marine Designs
We have boat plans (both yacht designs, catamaran designs and power designs) for all sizes. From the 12ft Mushulu Dinghy stitch & glue yacht tender to the Oceansky 57 catamaran. We design timber boats, plywood boats, strip plank boats, fibreglass composite boats, steel and aluminum boats to very modern styling for both monohull designs or multihull designs, powerboat or sailboat and in round bilge, multi-chine or radius chine hull forms.
G'day Everyone,
How often have you noticed on power boats the transducer mounted on the transom? I guess it makes sense to see where you've been and, not where your going huh?
In plywood, glass or composite boats, you don't need to cut a transducer hole through the boat. There's a simpler more effective way.
Once you sorted where you want the transducer, typically in the forward third, simply cut a length of PVC pipe that the transducer will fit into, scour the outside, and glass it onto the inner skin of the bottom panel. ( in other words inside the boat).
Cut a slot in the PVC cap that fits the pipe and then fill the pipe with either glycerin ( I think that's how it spelt) or just salt water. Drop the transducer in and fit the cap. That's it.!!
The transducer will read through the bottom panel !
A big plus is: No Holes in the Boat !
You'll find it can actually read through approx 1/2" of solid glass, so reading through your plywood/glass or strip plank boat poses no problem at all.
( You can't do this with alloy or steel boats, as the transducer cannot read through those materials...That's why they're mounted on the transom with small alloy boats)
When we lived aboard our 42 ft catamaran, we used this exact principle using a simple fish finder as a depth sounder.
Through 3 layers of 200gm cloth/ 9mm plywood and 9mm approx of straight cured resin and it read straight thru !!!
( We had the big expensive yacht brands initially with a hole cut through, but after 3 years it died. We then bought a NAVMAN fishfinder and mounted it as above and it lasted 9 years.
Too easy.
Hope this helps
Regards
Mark
