Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Stuck KNOT Transducer

Our Speed Transducer stopped working

Not the first time and it's typically due to getting a piece of floating grass or the ilk caught in the paddle wheel. Still, it's a pain as we compare our GPS speed to our 'through the water' speed in order to determine the water's current & direction. ie. GPS speed of 5 knots and Water speed of 3 knots means we have 2 knots of current on the stern, or GPS speed of 3 knots and Water speed of 5 knots means we have 2 knots of current on our Bow. That helps us plan for going alongside or as we are approaching a bridge that needs to open.


Our Speed/Depth/Temperature transducer is mounted in a through hull that is inside the Bathroom cabinet, along with 3 other thru-hulls (Engine Raw Water, Sink Drain and Shower Sump) and despite my recent update to the Fresh water plumbing, the Transducer is a bit awkward to reach (it's a boat!), however, not to difficult. 

To clean off the transducer, we can reach over the side from the dinghy with the boat brush and wipe off the surface which is just in reach underwater, it takes a while if we don't have out dink in the water already, so the alternative is to pull the transducer from it's thru-hull and plug it until we have chance to clean the transducer. Doing this does put some water in the bilge, typically about a 1/2 gallon, more or less.

This weekend we were at the Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale and met with a friend on his boat 'Cookie Monster' among other things, we discussed the transducer issue. He explained that he normally takes out the transducer when the boat is at the dock and replaces it prior to departure. What a Great Idea!

 On Sunday morning, I pulled the transducer and plugged the hole with our new True Plug Mini just to check out the plug.
It worked great, cut the water flow from the open thru-hull completely.

The Transducer Thru-Hull is an older version and does not have the internal water trap hinge that a modern Tranducers Thru-hull does, I've got one and might change it out later this year when we plan on a haul out.

To make sure I had the correct Thru Hull plug, I pulled the True Plug Mini out (more water) and inserted the spare Airmar plug. Again, it fit just fine and no water flow. 

Cleaned the transducer and spun the paddle wheel to check all was well, Peggy confirmed that we had apparent water speed on our GPS display.

One more time, pulled the plug and inserted the Transducer into the thru-hull. We should be good to go now.

When we left the dock, it was nice to see that the Water speed was now working fine.

Normally we take about an hour to unload the boat back at our dock and we're typically exhausted, today was no different. We're going back down to the boat on Wednesday and at that time I'll pull the Transducer and insert the Airmar Plug (keeping the mini plug in place when not needed is not a good idea.)

See you on the water!

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