Im looking for a depth finder for my 20' sailboat (along with a Marine
VHF radio) and I have little knowledge of whats good, bad, and
indifferent.

I dont need color, I dont need paper charts, just something that I can
mount on a swing so it will be protected when the boat is not in use
and swung out through the hatchway when Im on the water. Being able to
detect fish would be a good secondary purpose.

Any suggestions as to what type, brand, size, power etc etc would be
appreciated. Somewhere in my Stuff..Ive got an old Lowrance unit
with the round slender round window that shows bottom as a lighted
bar and fish as smaller bars..kinda like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Uniden-MC100...-/290780570385

but Id rather have something with an LCD display. My old fish finder
is a "portable" and really cant be mounted on the boat..its in a can.
Last time I used it..it worked, but its been 15 or more years ago. Who
knows now....

Anyone have a usable one with transducer? Doesnt need to be fancy,
just usable for a small sailboat.

Same with a Marine band VHF radio. I dont need one for the
lakes..but having one would be nice..and I will be hauling her over to
the ocean now and then.

Ive got one of those Baofeng handi talkies..which seems to work ok,
but Ive not tested it out on the marine band as of yet..and would
really like to have a radio mounted on the boat.

Also still looking for an outboard motor. I had the cash to buy
one..but spent the $200 on the (new to me) sailboat last week.
https://picasaweb.google.com/104042282269066802602/FJ1

Soon as I pick up the new wheel bearings in LA this week, Ill put the
wheels back on and be ready to do a restoration of the Ensenada 20.

Gunner

"There are no leftists in mainstream American politics.

Just two right wing parties, one hard right and one softer."
Christopher A. Lee, 8/18/2013

Lots of GPS/Sounder units out there for a reasonable price new from Garmin
now that Lowrance and Humminbird both have 2 generations of HD structure
scans.

I have a couple of the older simple LCD graph Garmin combo units and they
work just fine. I've had them for several years, and the only issues have
been damaging transducers skipping sandbars and fishing in ultra shallow
water. Not something you are likely to be doing with a sail boat.

On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:53:39 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

Im looking for a depth finder for my 20' sailboat (along with a Marine
VHF radio) and I have little knowledge of whats good, bad, and
indifferent.

I dont need color, I dont need paper charts, just something that I can
mount on a swing so it will be protected when the boat is not in use
and swung out through the hatchway when Im on the water. Being able to
detect fish would be a good secondary purpose.

Any suggestions as to what type, brand, size, power etc etc would be
appreciated. Somewhere in my Stuff..Ive got an old Lowrance unit
with the round slender round window that shows bottom as a lighted
bar and fish as smaller bars..kinda like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Uniden-MC100...-/290780570385

but Id rather have something with an LCD display. My old fish finder
is a "portable" and really cant be mounted on the boat..its in a can.
Last time I used it..it worked, but its been 15 or more years ago. Who
knows now....

Anyone have a usable one with transducer? Doesnt need to be fancy,
just usable for a small sailboat.

Same with a Marine band VHF radio. I dont need one for the
lakes..but having one would be nice..and I will be hauling her over to
the ocean now and then.

Ive got one of those Baofeng handi talkies..which seems to work ok,
but Ive not tested it out on the marine band as of yet..and would
really like to have a radio mounted on the boat.

Also still looking for an outboard motor. I had the cash to buy
one..but spent the $200 on the (new to me) sailboat last week.
https://picasaweb.google.com/104042282269066802602/FJ1

Soon as I pick up the new wheel bearings in LA this week, Ill put the
wheels back on and be ready to do a restoration of the Ensenada 20.

Gunner

You can check prices but it was my experience that a Fish Finder was
much cheaper then a dedicated depth sounder and the cheaper ones
provide essentially the same information. The more expensive fish
finders display considerably more info then you will use on a
sailboat. I believe that some fish finders come with a transom mount
so that you can easily dismount the transponder,

The model you referenced is a very old model and everything today is
LCD (and probably more accurate :-).

As for marine band VHF, practically everyone I see over here is using
ICOM, I can only assume that there is some reason :-) If you are
sailing an open boat get a hand held and mount and optional antenna on
the mast head so that you can connect the hand held for a bit better
range.

West Marine is usually the bible for boaters like McMaster is for the
metalworking and generally fix-it trades. Not necessarily to buy from
but a good place to see what is available.

Amazon has a cheap fish finder
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Uniden-MC100...-/290780570385
and a cheap VHF
http://www.amazon.com/Uniden-Waterpr...7054164&sr=1-4

But realistically, do you really need a depth sounder for a 20 ft.
boat? What does it draw? Maybe 3 ft. max. If you run aground you can
jump over the side and push it off.
--
Cheers,

John B.