Boat draft

[billnpat]

hey bill, Boating in the "GREAT SOUTH PUDDLE", i set mine to 3' i have the same draft as you but dont want to take any chances, problem is the great south bay is not much deeper than 3' haha, I just installed a new transducer for the new garmin chartplotter so i have a second ducer i dont trust the factory installed on it seems to go wacky :huh:

Thats funny, great south bay puddle...:smt021

you set your depth finder??? how????:huh:

 

[Henry Boyd]

Bill,

Many depth gauges can be adjusted, or 'offset'. The adjustment is because the gauge reads the depth at the transducer face. In the case of our boat it is located about halfway between the waterline, and the lowest point on the boat (the drive skeg). By setting the offset you can have the gauge readout the depth from the waterline, helpful if you use paper charts, but you have to do the math in your head to know your clearance. Or you can set it to readout based on the lowest point on your boat, or the 'keel' setting. I use a keel setting because we have to boat in very shallow water to use the mooring at our house.


How to adjust depends on brand and model. Also some gauges do adjust, some don't. If you have a stand alone gauge on the dash made by Lowrance, then that may be the original gauge supplied by Sea Ray. If so, that baby is really basic with no adjustments that stay in memory when the unit is off. With that instrument you need to know where the transducer is in relation to the rudders or waterline, so you can get meaningful info from it.

Henry

 

[Woody]

Draft is the depth of the water required to float your boat. It is the distance from the actual water line to the lowest point on your boat. That lowest point could be your keel, props or rudder for example. Your tech may know what he means but the way he's telling you doesn't make sense.

The way you explain it make more sense....what i don't understand is that if my depth finder says 2 feet,
That would be how much water there is between the bottom of my keel to the water bed???
if so??

THEN I UNDERSTAND :smt038:smt038

If your depth finder is working properly and it says 2’ that would be how much water is between your transducer and the bottom or else it would say 5' from the surface(you have a 3' draft) You need to remember your keel, props, rudder, etc or whatever it is that might be lower than your transducer. If your lowest point is 8” below the transducer then you would really have 24”-8”= 16”.

What Henry said, too.

 

[billnpat]

Thanks Henry,
i believe thats the original gauge...i have some homework to do i see...

ill be posting back...:thumbsup: