I have Autohelm speed and depth instruments on my 290. Recently the plastic speed transducer literally came apart as I was cleaning it. There are two plastic pieces, (formerly) held together by apparently nothing more than a wire; when pulling the transducer out, the first piece came while the second remained lodged. If anyone has had this problem, I'd like to hear about it, but that's not the point of this post. I've contacted Raymarine to no effect. Since I don't want this happening again, I was wondering about replacing the plastic one with a bronze transducer. I was looking over the owners manual and it referenced using the bronze transducer with wooden hulls. (now this is where a little information goes too far...) Has anyone replaced their plastic transducer with a bronze one (presumably because the bronze one will last longer than two seasons)? And the reference to the wooden hull doesn't preclude me from using it on my 290, right? Any help would be appreciated (particularly if several have had this happen and have thoughts about the plastic transducers). My thanks in advance.