Marie Musolino
Nags Head, NC
Boat Name: Reality Check
Model/Year: Catalina 22 / 1977/Swing Keel
Hull No. 6869
Hailing Port: Nags Head NC |
 10/06/2004 5:42 PM Pacific Time
Help! I need a depth sounder, our waterways are shallow and full of shoals,etc. And probably a GPS in the near future. So I found this 'all in one toy' on the SailNet site. Discontinued model, 1/3 the orginal price. But it doesn't come with a tranducer. So
3 questions -
1&2 -Would any "in hull" transducer work and where would I get one. I had trouble finding just a the transducer.
3- Here is the decription: Is it worth the price ($300)Opinions please.
The GARMIN GPSMAP 185 Sounder offers unique functionality to the boater who wants it all. It boasts a generous display, a small footprint for space-challenged installations, powerful 12 parallel channel GPS performance, detailed digital chartplotting, and a 200 KHz sounder/fishfinder.
As for the Sounder, single-frequency operation lets you keep an eye on both deep and shallow water, a variable zoom window shows details at the touch of a button, and an exclusive underwater waypoint capability allows you to store the position and depth of objects below the water's surface.
GARMIN's reputation as a navigation leader is evidenced in the GPSMAP 185 Sounder. Accurate 12 parallel channel GPS position information is displayed on a big built-in basemap, and GARMIN micro G-chart cartridges give you even greater map details for inland or offshore operations.
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Boat Name:
Model/Year:
Hull No.
Hailing Port: |
10/06/2004 6:10 PM Pacific Time
Marie,
If all you need is a depth sounder you don't really need to spend $300. I sail the California Delta and it too has hi and low spots. It can be 5 feet in one location and 30 seconds later it will be 60 feet........ so I thought a depth sounder would be $ well spent.... and it has been.
I bought a Humminbird 100 at WalMart for $89. Works great!
Epoxied to the inner hull... very accurate for 3 years now. |
Michael Smalter
Webster, NY
Boat Name: Marrakesh
Model/Year: 1986
Hull No. 13645
Hailing Port: Rochester, NY |
10/06/2004 7:00 PM Pacific Time
You can purchase a transom or through hull transducer for the 185 from Garmin at
http://shop.garmin.com/accessories_for_product.jsp?sku=010-00150-00
Before you purchase it, check out the prices for the charts at
http://www.waypoints.com/uswmgchart.html
they are special order only. Garmin seems to be focusing on the BlueChart software today. |
Marie Musolino
Nags Head, NC
Boat Name: Reality Check
Model/Year: Catalina 22 / 1977/Swing Keel
Hull No. 6869
Hailing Port: Nags Head NC |
10/07/2004 4:06 AM Pacific Time
I don't want a "thru hull" transducer, and it doesn't make sense to see the depth of where you have already passed. I think I'll take a trip to walmart and get the Hummingbird. Sounds like it is all I need at this time.
Thanks for the input! |
Dick King
Melbourne, FL
Boat Name: Twilight Zone
Model/Year: Sport/2005
Hull No. 15546
Hailing Port: Melbourne, FL |
10/07/2004 5:57 AM Pacific Time
Hi Marie - I share your comment about seeing where you have been. So why do you want a depth sounder? If you have a retractable keel, it will tell you when you are getting into shallow water. I have sailed in thin water for 30 years and never saw a need to confirm it. Fish finding is a different thing all together. Not being a fisherman, I still don't have a need. |
Marie Musolino
Nags Head, NC
Boat Name: Reality Check
Model/Year: Catalina 22 / 1977/Swing Keel
Hull No. 6869
Hailing Port: Nags Head NC |
10/07/2004 6:27 AM Pacific Time
Hmmm, I never thought of it that way. The c-22 is my first "real boat" - I've been using a sunfish for the last 2 summers - Sometimes I can't get the daggerboard up fast enough when I hear it dragging and - wham - "I'm in the drink" I guess I was just thinking about that and reading old threads about depth sounders and thought it would be a good purchase. Maybe I'm confusing "need" and "want" :) |
Joe McElroy
Snoqualmie, Washington
Boat Name: Teasel
Model/Year: 1979 Swing Keel
Hull No. 9014
Hailing Port: |
10/08/2004 9:08 AM Pacific Time
I responded yesterday, and the forum unlogged me! I'll try again. I would not go anywhere around here without a depth sounder. We have extended shallow areas a long ways out from shore. These areas have either snags or huge rocks concealed. There is no warning whatsoever that you are near one until you have a hole in the bow. These areas are charted and easy to avoid if you know what the depth is. We also use the sounder for navigation, since you can often tell where you are by comparing the depth with the chart. (I'm talking about FOG here, for the benefit of you southerners). |
Marie Musolino
Nags Head, NC
Boat Name: Reality Check
Model/Year: Catalina 22 / 1977/Swing Keel
Hull No. 6869
Hailing Port: Nags Head NC |
10/08/2004 10:10 AM Pacific Time
I really love these discussion groups. I have learned so much from everyone.
Good point. It is one thing to run aground on a sand bar, quiet another to hit an old oyster bed or a submerged stump. The low cost "hummingbird" has been suggested several times. A small price to pay for the added information. I have decided against the Garmin that I first asked about. Mainly because of the type of transducer and secondly the cost of the additional charts. Right now I am learning how to plot a course the "old fashioned way" and loving every minute of it. |
Linda Hoffecker
Lancaster, PA
Boat Name: t/c
Model/Year: '82 Cat 22
Hull No. t/c
Hailing Port: Havre de Grace, MD |
10/09/2004 7:43 AM Pacific Time
Speaking of shallow water and getting hung up...I have an Eagle depth/fish finder (came w/the boat) and always have it on while on the waters as we have 'flats' that can be shallow as 1 ft. at low tide and some bars that are walkable at low. Anyhow, I always watch the finder and when it read 7.2 ft., (????), I couldn't figure out why my motor wasn't pushing the boat. Kept feeling some kind of bump bumping. I thought that the keel cable broke and that the keel was hanging by its bolt and swinging along as it bumped the bottom....Finally, broke down and called Tow Boat US (get your wallet out) and they called the Coast Guard. I was on VHF and cell phone for a long time! (Darkness arrived) Glad that I'd found 2 usable flares on the boat that the previous owner had left. I was going to get the up to date ones in the Spring. Hurrah. We waited an hour for Tow Boat to get to us and then, it took an hour and 1/2 to get us unstuck (extra charge for that part) and back to the marina. $800. later,,,,after coming to, we were happy to be in the slip. Best part was when the tow boat capt fell in the water at the dock jumping for the dock to his boat. We did lose a boat hook somewhere along the line, but I suppose that is better than a whole boat.
I can't figure out why I couldn't raise the keel after hitting the silt and mud...?? Someone suggested that the keel was hitting the edge of the boot area and jammed. After we got into deeper water, I could crank it up. There are things I'd do differently, now. Well, it was an experience. |
Chip Lee
Utica, NY
Boat Name: Martha Pearl
Model/Year: 1980 C-22
Hull No. #9742
Hailing Port: Black River Bay, NY |
10/10/2004 9:34 AM Pacific Time
Linda, it's probable that your boat was twisting from either wind or current after you got the keel stuck in the mud, and this bound it up tight enough to resist raising.
But I'm interested in why your depth finder was reading 7.2 ft. with your keel obviously buried in mud. It should have been reading less than 5 feet at that point. Where is your transducer located? How soft was the bottom where you got stuck and what was the range and gain setting, if you remember?
Every depthfinder I've owned so far has a minimum depth reading of about 3-3.5 ft, and usually reads accurately in that depth if I have installed the transducer right and have the range and gain settings right.
To me, every depth reading I get from 20 ft to hundreds of feet is interesting, but the depth readings I get at 20 ft or less are critical!
So I work with my depthfinder at various docks fairly often, sounding the bottom, noting its character (mud, sand, rock), and using the manual range and gain settings to get the meter to read what I'm sounding.
There is a difference between depthfinders in how well they read over their entire range. I had a Furuno once that could accurately read 5.5 ft in it's 60 ft. range with about 25% gain, but the first Humminbird I bought could only accurately read shallow depths on soft or weedy bottom when set at 10 or 20 ft range with moderate gain. If, for example, I used auto-gain and the depth was set at 60 ft. the depth would jump all over the place, even though I knew the bottom was shallow, smooth muck. I assumed this depth finder was reading the changing density of the bottom as depth changes, so I set the depth range and gain manually to be sure.
By the way, this Humminbird was transom-mounted on an aluminum fisshing boat, and that was trouble anyway. On fiberglass boats, I'm a strong believer in mounting inside the hull and shooting through it. I have not had an installation of this type fail yet.
I also run manual range and gain on the cheap Humminbird I have now, especially over unknown terrain. Even though it seems to have better accuracy in auto range/auto gain than the old one, I feel safer setting it myself. Set manually, when I know I'm over 4 ft of familiar mud bottom, it reads 4 ft.
There are probably people reading this thread who have many different models of depthfinders and I hope they will share their experiences with depthfinders so we can all learn more.
Chip Lee |
Joe McElroy
Snoqualmie, Washington
Boat Name: Teasel
Model/Year: 1979 Swing Keel
Hull No. 9014
Hailing Port: |
10/10/2004 3:48 PM Pacific Time
I think ours is a Humminbird "Wide One Hundred". In any case, it was the cheapest one available 3 years ago (around $80). Ours is potted in epoxy in the bow and has always performed flawlessly in auto. It changes range very quickly and appropriately. The beep that sounds when it is changing range is informative without even having to look at the screen. Where to mount these monitors is as much of a problem as the compass mounting position. It's difficult to find a place that gives an unobstructed view of the screen no matter where the crew is, while avoiding locations that are in the way or a trip hazard. Our monitor is mounted on a tapered wooden block on the face of the companionway step at the far left. This position has never been a problem and has never been kicked there. We always remove it when not in use (it has a quick release) to keep it out of the weather.
Joe |
