A depth sounder is one item that wasn’t on my pre-launch punch list but I feel is essential before leaving port. While I was waiting for the replacement seacock to arrive after my failed Splash Day, I was installing a new sounder head unit and stared for a while at the tangled nest of wiring for Tent Model XXX’s alarm system. I decided to remove all of the associated wiring, sensors, and noisemakers, and that really cleaned up the helm wire chase in the salon.
What a rat’s nest
But the thing is…it worked. I installed the alarm system after the bastard thieves stole many tens of thousands of dollars worth of materials, parts, and tools in 2014. I suspect that the thieves knew the marina and the boat. But once the motion detectors were in place and the tent would light up with strobes, scream alarms, and even an air raid siren if anybody entered the tent or came onboard, the streaming cameras picked up no more nighttime visitors.
Recently, after de-tenting the boat, several people with boats at the marina have come by to offer congratulations. A few have commented that they gave Tent Model XXX a wide berth so-as not to set off the alarms. At night, the LED strobes would absolutely light up the white shrink wrap plastic if anybody strolled too close (<5 ft), with scream alarms going off inside. I didn’t tell them that was intentional, but it kind of was. 🙂
Infra-red motion detector on the left, depth sounder head unit on the right
The alarm system is based on a commonly available car alarm, so all of the inputs (i.e. IR sensors) and outputs, like LED strobes and air raid sirens, are 12v. I used cat5 cable for the long wire runs around the tent.
Tent Model XXX’s alarm system
I will probably reuse parts of this to alarm the boat once it’s in my home port. Better safe than sorry.
Alarm wiring removed, but it’s still messy
I applied clear shrink tube to the OEM wiring identification stickers
Much better!
Many of the OEM wire ID stickers are unraveling
The shrink tube fixes that problem.
Now, that’s much better…on to the depth sounder
I grew up on the West Coast, where the sea floor drops from tens of feet deep to hundreds pretty quickly, and it doesn’t get shallow again until you get to Hawaii or Asia. When we moved to the East Coast and first bought our 1967 Chris Craft Constellation 52, we were motoring north to DC on the Chesapeake, a mile from shore. On the West Coast, there’d be hundreds of feet of water below us. So I thought that the depth sounder on our new boat was defective, because it kept showing just three to five feet!
Chart? What is “chart”? Who needs a chart when there’s hundreds of feet of water below your keel?!?!
When the sounder alarm went off and indicated one foot of water below the transducer, I happened to turn around and see the chocolate-colored trail we were leaving as we motored through the muddy shallows a mile off-shore.
And that’s when I realized the importance of charts and depth sounders. On the East Coast, don’t go anywhere without both!
Hawkeye head unit should work once it’s in water
The Hawkeye DT2B is the one gauge in my dashboard that doesn’t look even remotely period correct. I considered installing a depth sounder from the era, which show up on ebay frequently, but they’re incompatible with modern transducers. I installed a new transducer in this boat back in 2009, before moving the boat to Deale, MD. So all I had to do was connect the transducer wires to the Hawkeye head unit and give it a 12vdc supply, which I pulled from the starboard ignition switch. I don’t like the plastic factory mount for the depth sounder, so I’ll have to figure out something more attractive. But for the purpose of motoring the boat through the treacherous Chesapeake Bay to my home port on the Potomac River, this will do fine.
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Transiting to Our Home Port!
1969chriscraftroamer46 
Function over form. IMHO, one of the analogue style with the neon points would suit, in a chrome housing of course :-).