Sorry... I have a friend with an O'day 22 and his is a swing keel. I assumed they all were.
Thinking of getting a GPS..which to buy
- Thread starter davidmhull
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No need to apologize rgranger. They sold these in a number of configurations over quite a few years. The basic design as far as the types of hulls changed as well as the rigging and cabin layout. Mine happens to be the "shoal draft" version with no swing keel. Everything is a compromise with sailboats. You give up one thing to gain another. You have a lot of cabin space but she sails like a bathtub or you lose some keel and she will not sail up wind as well etc. Mine had some kind of fru fru privacy bulkhead so the wives wouldn't complain but this made it almost impossible for someone my size to navigate the forepeak. A jigsaw took care of that little problem. Have a good day.
I have a Compac 23 and my draft is only 2.5'. If I run aground I can get out of the boat and push it off. I haven't done this yet. I am careful because I am use to a 4' draft and I am very familiar with my cruising area. I tend not to try to go through really shallow areas that I see on the charts.
Even if you have a good chart plotter, always have paper charts for back up. I carry my 441s, a spare handheld that came with my boat, Navtronics on my cell phone, and paper charts.
Even if you have a good chart plotter, always have paper charts for back up. I carry my 441s, a spare handheld that came with my boat, Navtronics on my cell phone, and paper charts.
David
Bad Obsession hit on something. If you sail within two miles of shore, an iPhone should give you all that you need. There are lots of great nav apps for the iPhone. Keep some booklet charts handy and you should have all you need.
Bad Obsession hit on something. If you sail within two miles of shore, an iPhone should give you all that you need. There are lots of great nav apps for the iPhone. Keep some booklet charts handy and you should have all you need.
Maybe said already I didn't read whole thread, but Samsung has a waterproof phone out. I personally can't stand android but the samsung hardware is good. And plotter apps available. I'm an iPhone guy.
Again..thanks for the replies. I always have my paper charts with me and I have a backup compass just in case. When I retired I got rid of my cell phone. I know this may seem old fashioned but I don't like having my chain yanked. I like keeping things to a minimum. It is also my understanding that cell phones don't pick up the geostationary satellites. Correct me if I am wrong. I am often out in the middle of the bay heading for Smith island or Tangier. I know for a fact there is no cell service on either of those two islands so I don't think that would do me much good. I do have a VHF marine radio but I think only because it was on the boat when I got it. I did however go to the trouble of pulling coax and putting an antennae on the masthead. My previous boat (40' gaff rigged) had kerosene running lights, no electronics at all and no auxiliary engine. Ah those were the days! It did have a working jib so I learned to back the boat into a slip with that. Scared the heck out of a few folks but never hit anything. ( I do have the distinction of being the only person I know to plow into the Wolf Trap lighthouse in the middle of the night. If any of you are familiar with that light house you may be wondering how that happened).
Well rgranger I was sailing in the bay, as I often do, and it was about 2:00 am. Nice steady breeze of about 8 knots. I had been up for two days and I was a bit fried to say the least. The crew (me) was taking my nightly ration of rum and I was trying to pick up wolf trap to get a bearing. I usually head out from Smith point but I had been doing some work on the boat on Gwynns island at a friends boat yard. Well I literally fell asleep at the wheel and woke up to a loud crunch where I had rammed the rip rap around the light. I had some very mixed feelings about it at that point. Really stupid to run into it but one heck of a job of dead reckoning. No real damage other then some scraped paint.
Boat electronics are a slippery slope. A perfectly good depth sounder can be had for $100.
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=59500
And if you just occasionally want a GPS/Chartplotter, an Ipad mini is a great option. Keep it below with your charts not at the helm. It's GPS is plenty accurate and will work fine through the fiberglass cabin top. The screen is large. It serves as a laptop for internet access. There are many good chart programs but my favorite is Garmin Bluechart that also downloads the Active Captain database to warn me about recent shoaling, changes to navigation markers and so on.
And when you're not cruising you can use it at home.
-- Note - the hardest thing about depth sounders is mounting the transducer. Drilling a hole in the hull is no fun. If you hull isn't cored, it's easy to just glue it to the inside of the fiberglass. There are many guides on how to do this online.
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=59500
And if you just occasionally want a GPS/Chartplotter, an Ipad mini is a great option. Keep it below with your charts not at the helm. It's GPS is plenty accurate and will work fine through the fiberglass cabin top. The screen is large. It serves as a laptop for internet access. There are many good chart programs but my favorite is Garmin Bluechart that also downloads the Active Captain database to warn me about recent shoaling, changes to navigation markers and so on.
And when you're not cruising you can use it at home.
-- Note - the hardest thing about depth sounders is mounting the transducer. Drilling a hole in the hull is no fun. If you hull isn't cored, it's easy to just glue it to the inside of the fiberglass. There are many guides on how to do this online.
I have another question about the GPS in general. I am not sure but it looks like the only option with the Garmin 44DV is a transom mount. I can live with that but where is the best place to mount it so that it reads correctly when you are heeled over or is this a stupid question (as in it can't read correctly)? I thought about mounting it on the rudder so I know it will at least always be in the water but I would be afraid that the constant flexing of the cable would break it. It might be something like where you have to heave to from time to time to get an accurate depth reading. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Most transom mount transducers can also be mounting to the inside of the hull...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22SzRXa21hg
Most likely if you are really heeled over you will be sailing in an area where you know you have sufficient water depth from experience or reading the charts for the area either via the chartplotter or paper charts or using a computer running OpenCPN and using the free NOAA charts.
I think you will find you will be using the depth-finder mostly when approaching shore to say anchor or go in and then you might be motoring or sailing slowly and not heeled over.
Good luck,
Sumner
=====================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida, Bahamas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22SzRXa21hg
Most likely if you are really heeled over you will be sailing in an area where you know you have sufficient water depth from experience or reading the charts for the area either via the chartplotter or paper charts or using a computer running OpenCPN and using the free NOAA charts.
I think you will find you will be using the depth-finder mostly when approaching shore to say anchor or go in and then you might be motoring or sailing slowly and not heeled over.
Good luck,
Sumner
=====================================
1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida, Bahamas
I have been extremely pleased with the Garmin 541 chartplotter / fish finder.
https://youtu.be/ILuLRaozS6k
TFlight
https://youtu.be/ILuLRaozS6k
TFlight
A less expensive way to do it would be to buy a cheap fish finder / depth sounder and purchase Navionics for your cell phone or tablet. With the Navionics app you're always up to date and the depth soundings are and tide tables are accurate . You also the capability of building your own route and don't need some coverage once you have downloaded your maps.
David,
I went with the 54dv and at the suggestion of the supplier (Gil Travis/SemperFishing) let him swap out the transom mount with a true in hull mounted transducer at no additional cost.
You might be able to do this with the 44dv. Another supplier (GPSStore) said the 44dv transducer would be fine mounted in the hull. These two units come with slightly different transducers so I don't know if that matters.
The Garmin 54 and 44 models are new so all suppliers are charging the same price and I found most are offering free shipping. My local WM had the same price but they didn't have any knowledgible sales person who could answer my questions. That and sales tax is the reason I ordered from Gil.
I went with the 54dv and at the suggestion of the supplier (Gil Travis/SemperFishing) let him swap out the transom mount with a true in hull mounted transducer at no additional cost.
You might be able to do this with the 44dv. Another supplier (GPSStore) said the 44dv transducer would be fine mounted in the hull. These two units come with slightly different transducers so I don't know if that matters.
The Garmin 54 and 44 models are new so all suppliers are charging the same price and I found most are offering free shipping. My local WM had the same price but they didn't have any knowledgible sales person who could answer my questions. That and sales tax is the reason I ordered from Gil.
Hi Ward, My situation now is that I received the 44DV unit and it looks like it will foot the bill. I would prefer not to have a transom mount but if that's the only way to do it then so be it. The true thru the hull transducers you mentioned cost about as much as what I paid for the 44DV so that's kind of out for me for right now. I called Garmin and they said that this transducer will not work thru the hull because of a feature called down vue. This is some kind of narrow beam sonar that is supposed to give near photo quality images of the bottom. Since I'm not using this as a "fish finder" ( I already know the fish are down there somewhere) my decision may be to just forego the fancy images and use it for depth.The normal sonar and depth will work thru the hull with some loss of sensitivity. As I said the real reason why I got one at all is for depth and GPS capabilities. Another option I have been thinking about is to attach the transducer to the bottom of the hull beside the keel and bring the wire up through my old sink drain. I'm not using that through hull fitting any longer and although I did plug it, I could unplug it easy enough. Just the transducer without all the bracket hardware for mounting on the transom is really quite streamlined and thin. I was thinking I could just epoxy it to the hull (after cleaning of the anti fouling paint of course). I would probably add some sort of fairing although since it will be about a foot from the keel it seems like it would be well protected. I was going to ask around and see if anyone had ever done anything like this and what if any are the pitfalls. Thanks very much for the replies.
Hi David,
Did you get to try your transom mount transducer in side as a shoot through the hull unit?
I think there is a good chance it will work as a standard sonar unit.
I used the P79 transducer and have seen it as low as $125 but I would definitely give the one that came with the 44dv a try. I did use wax from a toilet bowl ring to hold the P79 and it works pretty well but doesn't read below 5'.
Did you get to try your transom mount transducer in side as a shoot through the hull unit?
I think there is a good chance it will work as a standard sonar unit.
I used the P79 transducer and have seen it as low as $125 but I would definitely give the one that came with the 44dv a try. I did use wax from a toilet bowl ring to hold the P79 and it works pretty well but doesn't read below 5'.
Hi Ward, no I have not tried it yet. From what I understand (urban legend only) the transducer will work in some capacity through the hull. There is a feature called down-vu (hence the DV in the model name) that will not work through the hull. It is supposed to give high resolution images of structure. What I need to determine through experimenting is will the basic sonar , depth etc. work through the hull? Do I really need the down-vu feature if the other features will work through the hull? Is the down-vu so good that I will just bite the bullet and mount the unit on the transom as designed? The weather here in Richmond has been so crappy hot that I haven't felt like working on the boat much. My plan is to launch, try the transducer just held over the transom, and try the bag of water or plumbers putty in the bilge. Once I determine what works and what doesn't and what I will be giving up then I will be able to make a better decision. When I read the product literature for this unit it was not recommended to use on a sailboat due to heeling. I don't know how in the world you are supposed to get around that issue. Unless there is a transducer that is gimbal mounted I don't see how you could get around the heeling issue with any transducer be it transom or through the hull. Thanks for the reply.