Negative offset for Hunter 44DS
- Thread starter Akapeterc
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What I do
You need to know for sure and so what I do is I know I draw 4'10 draft and so I throw a line over and measure the water dept and set the depth gauge to read what that dept is, so like if it reads 6' on your measurement I than the depth gauge at 6' and so I know if in 6 or 7' I know I am OK with 2 ft of water before running aground.
But others do it different setting the depth gauge to tell them how much measure of water under the keel and so to each way they like to do it.
My way I always know how deep of water I am in and know guess work with if in 10' ft of water and I need 5' and I am good to go.
I am not saying I have never gone aground but when in anchorage trying to drop anchor I know by my chartplotter readings and gauge reading is same I know I am good and accurate on my chartplotter location.
Nick
You need to know for sure and so what I do is I know I draw 4'10 draft and so I throw a line over and measure the water dept and set the depth gauge to read what that dept is, so like if it reads 6' on your measurement I than the depth gauge at 6' and so I know if in 6 or 7' I know I am OK with 2 ft of water before running aground.
But others do it different setting the depth gauge to tell them how much measure of water under the keel and so to each way they like to do it.
My way I always know how deep of water I am in and know guess work with if in 10' ft of water and I need 5' and I am good to go.
I am not saying I have never gone aground but when in anchorage trying to drop anchor I know by my chartplotter readings and gauge reading is same I know I am good and accurate on my chartplotter location.
Nick
Nick's right, there are different ways to do it, and it all depends on what YOU prefer.
My way: I found a calm day and a soft mud bank and slowly ran the boat until it grounded, looked at the depth gauge. It read 4.4. Now I now when it reads close to that I'm close to grounding. No math involved.
My keel is 5'-7".
My way: I found a calm day and a soft mud bank and slowly ran the boat until it grounded, looked at the depth gauge. It read 4.4. Now I now when it reads close to that I'm close to grounding. No math involved.
My keel is 5'-7".
Offset for a Hunter 44 Depth
I actually measured this last month at my slip with a tape measure as we were headed to a very shallow harbor on Shelter Island. Tape measure indicated 7.5 feet of actual water level. My depth gage read 6 feet so I concluded that my depth gage is conservative and I would expect to touch ground if the gage ever read 3.5 feet. Not sure this is 100% accurate but it has to be close.
I actually measured this last month at my slip with a tape measure as we were headed to a very shallow harbor on Shelter Island. Tape measure indicated 7.5 feet of actual water level. My depth gage read 6 feet so I concluded that my depth gage is conservative and I would expect to touch ground if the gage ever read 3.5 feet. Not sure this is 100% accurate but it has to be close.
Having an accurate depth meter is handy when anchoring in tidal waters. If you see 10' on the chart and 11' on the accurate depth meter you know the tide is 1' higher than low low water. So 2 minutes later when you cross the bar that only has 6" of clearance showing on the chart you will know that you have 1' 6" of clearance. And when you anchor you can anticipate what the water level will do based on the time of low tide. You can't do that with confidence with an inaccurate depth meter.
I beg to differ. Both charts and the height of tides are close, but not accurate to the tenths of feet shown on most depthsounders, which, I believe, tends to give (some) skippers as false sense of "accuracy."
Regardless of how you "calibrate" your depthsounder, my experience is that it's just as important to "do the math" when anchoring or going over shallow spots.
Two examples:
1. We anchor in a cove on a regular basis that has a very shallow sill at its entrance. After going over the sill on high tide, I checked my depthsouonder, compared it to the height of tide at that time at that location, and determined that if the tide was zero or higher I could get over the sill. I didn't need to know offsets or anything else, I just compared what the depth showed on my sounder to the sill and did the math on the tide height differences.
2. You anchor and the tide is going down eight feet. You check you depthsounder when you anchor and do the math compared to what your sounder shows and when you ground. If the difference is larger, you're fine.
Simple. My sounder isn't what Bill would call "accurate" but it sure works.
Many newer skippers would do well to draw a diagram showing the keel, the waterline and the change in water height, and see how it works. I've done it for new crew many, many times.
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I'll throw in my 2 cents. No saying that my way is best but it does work good for me: I measured the depth at my dock, in line with where the depth sounder is located on my boat. I then adjusted the sounder to show exactly that depth less 1 foot, i.e. the pilot's foot ! An easy comparison with the chart plotter and the depth sounder at a glance. And not a problem to do the maths, even in tidal waters ! A great bonus when in shallow water with someone else at the wheel. When they see that depth decreasing, they will let me know and I still have time to react with that extra foot available.
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