How do you use a depth finder for safety..

[Silvertip]

Re: How do you use a depth finder for safety..

A depth finder looks "down" not "ahead". It tells you how far down the bottom is from the transducer. You simply cannot rely on a depth finder for navigation. It is a tool but not a very good one for navigation. At 20 or 30 MPH you will have run over the object that tore off the lower unit and be passed it by many yards by the time you react to the depth finder.

 

[skargo]

Re: Buying a spare prop...

Re: Buying a spare prop...

After the incident this weekend I'd like to consider buying a new prop to carry as a spare... then someone told me you can't just buy one and call it done, you have to have it pitched? What? Just how much will cost me to carry a spare?

Desera

Someone is full of it!

 

[Thajeffski]

Re: How do you use a depth finder for safety..

Yeah, and the best chart plotters now have a variety views that show you underwater contour.

Of course GPS cannot assist with migrating sand bars etc. But identifying the deepest channels in a given area can really help. Combine this with your sounder to verify what the screen is showing you and you have some pretty good info for decision making.

Wow, which one gives you those views, I just got my tax return and it's burning a hole in my pocket!

So not to change the topic too much.

But with all the advancement in technology/gps/chartplotters.....

What do you think is the best product/value right now?

I have a garmin gps with blue charts, but it's pricey to have to upgrade it every year with new maps.......plus I really want something like in the pictures above!

I'd need something that easily goes in and out of the boat......as my docks are not really lockable.

I'm thinking the GPSMap640 looks like a good deal.

 

[dingbat]

Re: How do you use a depth finder for safety..

Wow, which one gives you those views, I just got my tax return and it's burning a hole in my pocket!

Those are Garmin Vision charts.

I have a garmin gps with blue charts, but it's pricey to have to upgrade it every year with new maps.......plus I really want something like in the pictures above!

Why buy new charts every year? Your lucky if a chart gets updated every 10 years. A lot of the charts have not been surveyed and updated in over 20 years.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How do you use a depth finder for safety..

Heard a story this weekend, a guy driving a new (to him) big fishing boat up the intracoastal at a good clip; slammed into a sandbar that had formed across the chanel; threw him from the fly bridge to the front deck and broke his neck.

No seat belts and air bags in a boat but lots of hard and sharp objects. No brakes either. In the sandy/mud bottom enviroment around here you're likely to slide up onto a bar or a flat with a relatively gentle stop, but you can still hit a sand drop off that will stop you like a rock would.

One reason you never let people ride on the bow with body parts dangling over, or lay flat on a front deck, while driving. I tell the children that any body parts I find over the gunwale gets cut off and put in the crab pot for bait. The boys get it.