A25 Fishfinder or Depth Sounder?

[nebulatech]

Hi All!

It's been a few years, but I'm back to work on Carolina Wren. I finally finished painting, I've glued up a Mahogany bowsprit, but it's too cold to finish it with epoxy at the moment, so I'm hoping to cut new floorboards this coming week. With the above preamble out of the way, I'm looking for thoughts and practical experience with depth finders. When I bought the boat, it had a thru-hull transducer that was ugly, potentially dangerous and probably didn't work. Short story (if that's possible at this point) is that device is gone and several layers of fiberglass have set up camp in it's old home.

I'm considering two possibilities for replacement, though I encourage any alternatives. I currently own a new-in-box Hummingbird 1000SX fish finder with a transom-mount transducer. This is an older model, probably over 10 years old, but on a 40+yo boat, that hardly matters. For a little more than I could sell it on Ebay, I could buy a new unit, depth only, with an in-hull transducer:
https://www.hodgesmarine.com/far12851-f ... er-eu.html

I understand the fish finder provides a graphic with the bottom profile, which could be informative, but I've cruised the entire Intracoastal waterway with a standard depth finder, finding ground myself along the way. I'm not sure how I feel about the transom mount transducer. The fish finder is the kind you find on 16-20 foot open fishing boats. I'm concerned that the transducer being 23'-24' from the bow entry at waterline is going to be providing stale information whereas an in-hull transducer would probably be installed in the bilge forward of the head.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and experiences!

[dkirsop]

I went with an in-hull transducer mounted under the floor of the head out towards the keel. I chose this location as the outside surface was clear of any objects or shapes that might cause turbulence and the slope of the hull was within the adjustment range of the transducer case. I installed a deck plate above the transducer for access. This keeps the transducer out of the water and clear of any debris.

The depth sounder came built into my chart plotter.

[DesertAlbin736]

For what it's worth we inherited a 2000 era vintage Garmin 240 depth sounder/fish finder connected to a thru hull transducer via 6 pin cable connector. Transducer was installed under the starboard bench seat storage locker (see photos). The location is outboard of the keel & just inboard of where the hull rests on the trailer bunk. That same starboard lazarette locker is now occupied by our battery banks after moving them to make room for a 20 gallon holding tank upgrade.

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8 pin adapter.jpg

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When we upgraded the simple early 2000's fish finder to a Garmin GPSMap 741xs chart chart plotter (which required an 8 pin transducer connection) in 2018 I installed a 6 pin to 8 pin adapter and kept the existing transducer which is still in the boat. The vintage transducer works fine for depth sounding and showing graphic representation of bottom contours but doesn't support some of the latest and greatest state of the art bells and whistles for the fish finding function. That doesn't matter to us because we're not avid fishermen.

We do have NMEA 0183 connections between our Standard Horizon GX2200 AIS/GPS/VHF radio and the chart plotter to plot AIS targets on screen. Comes in handy showing fast moving commercial freighter and barge tow traffic when crossing the Strait Of Georgia in BC.

NMEA.jpg

I would also say depending on how much cruising you do, especially in the ICW, a chart plotter with GPS that shows your exact position with depths, plus if connected to a device that can plot AIS targets would be worth the expense, especially if you can find a deal with someone who is upgrading from a smaller screen to a newer model with larger screen.

By the way, just as an aside, we're planning one last Pacific Northwest cruise out of Olympia, WA in Puget Sound this summer starting in June & afterwards, towards the end of July, will be laying up La Dolce Vita for sale under consignment contract with Capital City Yachts brokerage. For anyone up in the Pacific northwest and BC who is looking for an A25, ours will be available at that time.

[nebulatech]

Thanks dkirsop and DA. You both brought up important considerations. It's clear that I can sell this little fish finder on ebay and plan on getting an in-hull transducer, but I'll have to do a little more study on what exactly I want.

I hate to hear you're selling La Dolce Vita. First Willy and now you. It won't be the same.