'Tis done! Money has been spent, or at least the credit card imprint has been taken. Went to the Halifax boat show yesterday and bought both the Echopilot FLS Bronze II, and Standard Horizon CP 180. Now all that remains is the install. Oh, and a little matter of getting the weather to warm up and get the boat launched.

I also discovered that I was slightly wrong about the alternative technology to the Echopilot that gives a different and from my point of view, less desirable result - the Echopilot pulses multiple times per second and analyses the returns to produce the picture shown at the top of this blog. The other technology does a sweep much like a radar with a more delayed image on the screen. That technology is also a lot more expensive.



02/21/2008 05:53:32

Well, we've decided to spend more boat bucks. We are looking at a FLS Depth Sounder to add to the digital ones that we already have. Thank heavens for income tax rebates!

Two issues have factored into this decision: first factor is our tendency to want to explore and poke our bows into new and unknow spots. Even spots that we thought that we knew have become suspect over the last couple of years and I'm getting a little tired of running aground, even in soft going. The other factor has fallen out of our planning for our retirement cruise. Since we intend to make use of at least some of the ICW and, further, since the ICW is notorious lately for not being dredged, we are looking for a depth sounder that will tell us what the depths will be rather that what the depth was for the area that we have just passed over.

The answer seems to be manufactured by a compmany called EchoPilot. They make a series of these things ranging in price from $2600 down to $850, the difference being size and range. We are looking at the cheapest model for both financial and size reasons.

I have done a fair amount of study on these things and received a fair amount of advice from some knowledgeable folks. There are a lot of people who are advising that we don't get one, and if it was goping to be our one and only depth sounder, I think that would be good advice. But it won't be. It will be in use pretty much only when we are coming into port or into an unknown harbour or in a confined waterway such as the ICW. The aim will be to give us a general idea of what the depth is doing out in front and I am pretty confident that it will do that for us. Again, it's sopmething that we have to buy before we put the boat in the water. It's also something that I am having some difficulties getting a reasonable price from a Canadian distributor for. I don't mind paying an extra $20-40 on an $850 item to support a local store, but I'll be damned if I'll pay an extra 20%! I may wind up buying something from a US distributor.