New Garmin depth transducer....should I?

[tanton37]

Recently bought up a great package cheap from an area water rescue unit. Consists of a Garmin 742 plotter, Garmin HD18 radar and a Garmin GT51M-TH CHIRP depth transducer
and all the associated cabling and black boxes.
Question is......
The transducer is chunky and of the external type. All transducers I've seen all sailboats are of the flush mount type. This unit provides so much information back to the helm in addition to depth.....fish...bottom contours....sideview that I am tempted to install it even though it's marketed for power/fishing boats.
How much would I really lose in speed anyway on a 40 ft mono. By biggest concern would be straps in the travel lift but I can clearly mark it's position on deck.
Any opinions out there why this is something I should not do.
Thanks in advance, David

[Jolly Roger]

I don’t think it would make one jot of a difference to speed on any boat, unless you allow it to become encrusted with growth. It would be nice to have the added data though, you would see that pod of whales miles away.

[Sparx]

I installed this same transducer/ mfd combination on a prior boat. The transducer was epoxied directly to the interior surface of the hull exterior glass layer. I reinforced the interior side of the exterior glass layer, so the transducer was shooting through about 6 mm of fiberglass. Resolution was excellent.

No drag. The transducer shows the depth before the keel.