Regal Fast Track Hull and Sonar

[jbetzelb]

I have a regal 2300 with the Fast Track hull Basically puts air bubbles under the back half of the hull I want to mount a fish finder sonar externally on the back of it and have it work on plane. Anyone done this successfully? Could I mount it a few inches below the hull and get away from the bubbles that way?

 

[mr 88]

Mount it per instructions. Putting it below the hull will leave you with a spray and have it in a position that if you hit some debris it may rip off.

 

[dingbat]

Not familiar with that particular hull, but if stepped, pretty much the only option you have is thru hull fore of the first step

 

[Texasmark]

Below the hull will give you a big Rooster Tail and lots of spray around the transom besides being "more" prone to damage....BTDT

Over the 50 years of boating, for conventional (not side looking) transducers, I moved them inboard and shot through the hull, mounted centered, right at the transom......but if you have anything but solid material (alum. and glass) you will get undesirable attenuation.

 

[jmb23802]

I had a boat in the past with a small step toward the back of the hull that accomplished the same effect as the Regal Fastrac hull. The prior owner had put a fish finder on the boat with a transom-mount transducer and it never worked on plane. My current boat, a 2200 with Fastrac hull, has a transom-mount transducer also and it has never worked on plane either.

In my old boat, I moved the transducer on board and shot the signal through the hull just ahead of the step and it worked beautifully, except the "water temp" reading thereafter became the bilge temp reading (not a big deal to me as we are fair-weather boaters anyway). I had to test a couple different spots on the hull before I found a position that gave good results. I built a water box out of PVC pipe adhered to the bilge floor so I could cleanly replace a failing transducer or remove it altogether without a trace if I later desired. Worked great.

 

[Texasmark]

I had a boat in the past with a small step toward the back of the hull that accomplished the same effect as the Regal Fastrac hull. The prior owner had put a fish finder on the boat with a transom-mount transducer and it never worked on plane. My current boat, a 2200 with Fastrac hull, has a transom-mount transducer also and it has never worked on plane either.

In my old boat, I moved the transducer on board and shot the signal through the hull just ahead of the step and it worked beautifully, except the "water temp" reading thereafter became the bilge temp reading (not a big deal to me as we are fair-weather boaters anyway). I had to test a couple different spots on the hull before I found a position that gave good results. I built a water box out of PVC pipe adhered to the bilge floor so I could cleanly replace a failing transducer or remove it altogether without a trace if I later desired. Worked great.

If it was a stepped hull, like most pad boats of course it wouldn't work on plane as that part of the hull wasn't in contact with the water.

On the temp part, on my last boat, aluminum, I had one at the transom as I like and another of the same lowrance model mounted to the bottom of the trolling motor. Checking numerous times they were within 2*F ,close enough to be within the margin of tolerance of the equipment. On a fiberglass boat I could see a varlation as glass is an insulator , making for a slow response and alum is an excellent electrical and thermal conductor.

 

[QBhoy]

Hi. I have a stepped 18ft hull. I also have a sounder which is designed for external mounting. My hull is also Kevlar weaved...also extremely heavily built...you see where I’m going with this haha.
Despite all this. The externally designed transducer still works when mounted internally under the front of the engine and sat in a big blob of silicone. As long as the transducer has a medium to sound through (like a women getting an ultrasound when pregnant)...I’ve never known it not to work.
Mine only stops working at speeds above 60 mph when the hull is totally aired out. This rarely happens.

 

[jbetzelb]

This is the humminbird helix 5. It has down imaging. I know the fish finder will work if I mount inside the hull. Do you think the down imaging will work if I mount and shoot through hull?

 

[cptbill]

On my Larson with the delta conic hull(stepped) I had to put a depth sounder forward of the step to get any depth readings while on plane, when not on plane the sonar water temp and everything else the that the transom mounted unit did worked great

 

[jbetzelb]

Just follow up. I mounted it about 10 inches in front of the step in the hull. The thing works great up to 20 mph. The down imaging works shooting through hull also. I dont think the hull could be coming out of the water where I mounted the transducer but I suspect the water quality must be not good in the position I have it. .

 

[Texasmark]

Got your gain set too high? Sounds like the right place to put it. You are just reading bubbles as returns and should be able to back off the gain as the bottom reflection is predominant.

 

[jbetzelb]

Thanks. I will give that a try.