Handheld Depth Sounder?

[Cloroxbottle]

https://www.tripsavvy.com/best-depth-finders-4172077

Just curious if anyone out there had tried using a handheld depth sounder from the bow while manuvering in anchorages and around shoals...? Was it effective?

[Mike OReilly]

I've done it many times using the original handheld sounder, a leadline. Works great. Cheap, effective, and no need for batteries .

[Mystic38]

i have one.. but it would be real hard to use from the bow as the sensor face needs to be underwater..

it excels at pathfinding from a dinghy and that is where i use it most

[Matt Johnson]

We have a Hawkeye H22. It does what it's supposed to do, but we don't use it often. It's pretty infrequent that we can't guess shallow depths- the only thing we're worried about- just by looking over the side of the dinghy. 3' draft helps


-Matt

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by Cloroxbottle

https://www.tripsavvy.com/best-depth-finders-4172077

Just curious if anyone out there had tried using a handheld depth sounder from the bow while manuvering in anchorages and around shoals...? Was it effective?

Is this for the dinghy or your sailboat? I know many like the flashlight type sounder from the dinghy, but didn't find it that useful while you were rowing (alone) to survey the surrounding area. We installed a Hummingbird (w/screen) and glued the transducer to the hull to provide real time depths and seeing contours w/o stopping to take a reading. Eventually from non-use the flashlight sounder died and was never replaced. The Hummingbird can also be used while running the outboard at wot and still get accurate depths.
For the tropics the best depth finder off your sailboat is your eyes (in good daylight) once you can tell the general depths by color. Discussed in other CF threads was mounting a camera on the mast as an elevated view point to see forward/surrounding area. Think this is a great idea. We haven't done this yet, but is high up on the list for a future project.

[Munoz]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I've done it many times using the original handheld sounder, a leadline. Works great. Cheap, effective, and no need for batteries .

And can be used from both the deck or the dinghy, definitely an improvement over the modern electronic knockoffs......