Electronics
with a transducer that lowers into the
water from a housing inside the vessel.
Depending on the model, a Searchlight
Sonar costs from $12,000 to more than
$20,000. The customers for Searchlight
are West Coast sportsfishermen
competing to win million-dollar
tournaments.
Another clever device, 360 Imaging
from Humminbird uses the same
concept on a more compact and
affordable level. The customer base
for the 360 are fishermen who don’t
mind that the transducer lowers into
the water using a transom-mounted
assembly. That system isn’t appropriate
for a cruising boat, and there is currently
no other way to install it, though
Humminbird may be working on one.
The Furuno and Humminbird
systems cannot be deployed if the boat
is going more than 10 knots or so,
limiting their navigational usefulness in
“fast trawlers.”
Without moving parts, the
ForwardScan transducer is more akin
to a conventional sounder that has been
tipped on its side. Its effective range is
about eight times the actual depth, up
to about 160 feet ahead of the boat. It
includes a built-in shallow depth alarm
with parameters set by the user. In deep
water, this is great for detecting rocks
and pinnacles. Of course, if you are
operating in shallow waters such as the
Bahamas or portions of the Chesapeake
the eight-to-one ratio begins to work
against you.
For example, in 12 feet of depth
ForwardScan would effectively see 96
feet ahead. A trawler going 6 knots
covers 96 feet in less than 10 seconds—
not much time to make a decision and
act, but better than no warning. But even
in shoal water the device might prove
useful. I can think of several reef passes
in the Bahamas where ForwardScan
might have reduced the pucker factor.
Let’s say you know the general
vicinity of the pass, but the light is bad
for eyeballing the water, and seas are
too calm to cause breakers (visually
the pass is likely to show as a gap of
comparatively calm water between
breakers). Let’s say you know the pass
has a minimum depth of around 10 feet,
so set your alarm for 8. Take your best
guess and head for the spot at a crawl,
ready to back down and turn away.
Even better this forward scanner
works with another Simrad echo
technology called Structure Scan, which
looks 160 feet out from the sides of the
boat. You could run parallel to the reef,
detect the pass, mark it with a waypoint
and come back at it as described in the
previous paragraph.
I hope to test this theory. It would
be interesting, too, to determine
how effective ForwardScan will be in
container detection since the beam
is angled slightly downward from
REAL Testimonials by REAL Americans
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The bright color
looks great…
We wanted Copper-Free technology that works, at all our locations
and in all water conditions. Micron CF delivers that for us. It really
works! An extra bonus was the color. This is the first Micron bottom
paint in really bright, crisp colors – so it’s a popular choice with
our customers.
Micron CF contains Econea to ward off hard shell and Interlux slime
blocking technology (Biolux). It’s a product that is very universal…
we use it on sail and powerboats, for any type of waters.
This product has a reduced environmental footprint, it’s copper free and has
significantly less solvent, so much lower VOC emissions than conventional paint.
Molly Strassel
Molly’s Marine Service
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