Unknown Dome

[Parsellk]

Greetings all,

Recently a friend asked me to help with commissioning his 1980s sailboat. Upon inspection of the hull I noticed the unusual protrusion in the pictures attached. I asked him about and he explained that he had no idea what is was. We're both stumped.

The boat has the usual suite of electronics including raymarine ST60s including wind, depth, and speed readout heads.

Anyone know what this might be?? It does have a couple of wires inside the hull but nothing obvious to us.

 

[woodster]

some kind of transducer maybe

 

[PaulK]

Where do the wires go? If they end up at the depthsounder display, that's probably what they are. Otherwise, maybe it's one of those ultrasound antifouling systems that work so well until you cover them with paint.

 

[Calif. Ted]

Maybe it's a transducer that measures how much drag it is creating at different speeds ?

 

[Len Ingalls]

It may be a transducer for an Interphase forward looking &/or sidescan sonar,since it is mounted on center line at a point where it has a clear 270+ deg view. http://www.panbo.com/archives/2014/05/changing_transducers_--_so_you_have_a_5200_problem.html

 

[kimelmore]

It is part of a secret government project to hunt for mermaids using unsuspecting sailboat owners without their knowledge.