F-Ribs And Sibs - Inflatable Boat Community

Hi All,

Complete noob to the sport and boating in general. Have done a bit of kayaking, but that's about it. Just bought a Honwave T38 and a Suzuki 20hp, ready for a trip to the west coast of Scotland later in the year. Will no doubt have loads of questions

Cheers

Gary

Welcome gazzabish,

For your first boat you’ve made a cracking choice with a T38 and Suzi 20.

Nice one.

Hi Gary and to the forum
You've hit the ground running mate with that combo/setup
Enjoy
Paul

Thanks guys. It's taken a few months of researching before I made the decision for that setup. Because we use inflatable kayaks while on holiday I originally was thinking along the lines of the spearfish type boat with max 6hp engine, because it mirrored a kayak with a motor so to speak. I then thought it might limit us in the future for doing some sea/lochs etc, so wanted a more flexible setup.

One thing I am trying to get my head round is checking the depths while moving (fear of grounding it) and so been reading up about fish finders and chart plotters. I haven't been into fishing for years, so that wouldn't be my main reason for a certain type (not that I might give boat fishing a go again now I will be on the water). Is there any consensus on the best route to take for beginners, as I see some of you guys are old hats at it ?

Cheers

Welcome to the Honwave club ! lol !

There are quite a few of us who use fishfinders / gps on our inflatables. Mounting the tranceducer on the T38 can be a little tricky due to the trim tabs at the back. Do you have the launch wheels? If so then you can clamp the tranceducer to the leg of the wheel.

Most inexpensive sonar units are marketed as fish finders these days, an old style depth sounder can cost just as much. The ones without GPS and mapping are much cheaper than those with, but you need to think about what you want to do. I bought a fish finder without any mapping capability as I have been using my phone for navigation along with the Navionics boating app, but honestly I now regret that decision and wish I had spent a touch more and got the one with the built in mapping.

The Garmin units are popular, but beware that the echomap series is often sold without a tranceducer.

I like the look of the Raymarine Dragonfly series and I think if I was buying again then this is where I would start looking.

Hope this helps.

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the info. I do have the launch wheels, so at least I know that would be a mounting option. GPS and mapping would make sense for what I have in mind, so a bit more researching on the different units will be required looking at all the range/models available.

Take a look at the Garmin chartplotters as they have everything you need on them, can be quite expensive so look around. Both Chris & I have the transducer on the wheel legs & although set up differently they both work well.
The charts give you depths, where you are, where you’ve been etc etc & the fish finder are pretty good but I haven’t found any yet but they show you the sea bed & depth.

Mitch wrote: ↑

10 Feb 2019, 10:53

Take a look at the Garmin chartplotters as they have everything you need on them, can be quite expensive so look around. Both Chris & I have the transducer on the wheel legs & although set up differently they both work well.
The charts give you depths, where you are, where you’ve been etc etc & the fish finder are pretty good but I haven’t found any yet but they show you the sea bed & depth.

ok will do thanks. One question, do these plotters/fish finders show your depth while travelling at speed ?

Thanks

Hiya Gazzabish, Welcome to our friendly community.
That's a cracking set up you've just bought yourself, Congrats

Enjoy the forum,

Martin