To Bore a New Hole in the Hull or Not

[Genesis V]

This spring I will be adding a masthead Raymarine i60 wind transducer with a i70s display to my seatalk system. At the Toronto boat show I purchased the all in one pack which comes with a Airmar depth,speed & temp transducer, presently I have ST40’s installed with their separate displays. My question is:

1 Do it bore another hole in the boat to add the new transducer to supply info to seatalk.

2 Do I replace the ST40 speed transducer with the DST800.

3 Do I leave it as it is, all is working well and why add another through-hull.

Points: I spoke with a Raymarine rep at the toronto boat show, he told me I should switch out the new transducer with the ST40 speedo and feed both the DST800 and the remaining ST40 depth transducer into seatalk, as the network will see the two depth infos and I can choose one as the master the other will remain redundant should the other fail.

Later when I purchased the system the sales person told me he would never put his depth onto the seatalk network in the event of network failure he advises keeping the ST40’s independent but at the very least keep the depth.

It should also be noted that the DST800 made for Raymarine http://www.gemeco.com/transducer-detail.php?transducer=DST800 and the ST40 transmit at the same frequency 200kHz this would cause interferences so I may have to power down one when the other in going.

 

[LeslieTroyer]

Remove the st40 and use the new thru Hull. It has a baffle to slow down the water ingress while cleaning. Also the might be different lengths or have different indexing notches.

 

[jssailem]

My first tendency is not to drill any more holes in the boat bottom then absolutely needed.

Not sure why you need more than one transducer hole in your boat. If it fails you can still get to a marina to repair/replace. You want the most current unit you can afford. If you really want a second unit you can always add a through the hull transducer to the inside of the hull as a back up. Simple and easy. No speed info but you get depth.

 

[Marc14857]

Not sure I understand not connecting depth to the network. I had all ST 60 instruments and they were all including depth connected to the Seatalk NG system. This allows the data to be displayed on the MFD which I found helpful.

 

[Genesis V]

The feeling is that if the SeaTalk network fails in unfamilar waters for whatever reason, having depth info independently off the network will get you home safely.
I think this viewpoint has merit but at the same time I want to have depth & speed info on the network.

 

[Alan]

Years ago I found port and stbd tacks reading different speed. The reason, knot log was installed off center in the bow. I installed a new self sealing log on center line just in front of the keel which corrected the problem and has never been an issue since

 

[LeslieTroyer]

The feeling is that if the SeaTalk network fails in unfamilar waters for whatever reason, having depth info independently off the network will get you home safely.
I think this viewpoint has merit but at the same time I want to have depth & speed info on the network.

I have the sounder on the network using the itc5 and a separate standalone sounder on the cabin bulkhead.

 

[Genesis V]

Thanks for the feedback guys. LeslieTroyer I think your original comment is the way to go. Remove my ST40 Speedo, replacing it with the new DST800 3 in 1 transducer and put that on the ST network, this would leave the remaining ST40 Depth sounder as a secondary on it’s original analog display. Of course the other ST40 speed & temp display would be blank.
And of course *NO NEW HOLE*