![]() There is an auto setting, which changes the range based on the depth, but in difficult conditions the manual setting is helpful. The user interface is not immediately intuitive, but once the unit is set up the most you are likely to need is to change the range, achieved simply enough using the ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ softkeys. By default, the unit is set to choose a range automatically, but the user can override this. On this are plotted the echoes received by the transducer, using colours graded from blue to red to show the strength of the echo (red being the stronger). To display the information, Echopilot uses a screen showing a cross-section of the water ahead of the boat. Installation is simple – fit the transducer, plug it and the power cable into the back of the display and you’re done. The ‘Professional’ transducer is a much heavier unit of bronze, costing an extra £170 and using a 60mm through-hull. ![]() The standard transducer is sold as suitable for smaller boats, has plastic encapsulation and uses a 45mm through-hull fitting. The only unit tested with a dedicated display, the FLS 2D comes with a choice of transducers. Echopilot FLS 2DĪ channel buoy’s chain, picked up at around 12m We tried looking at a range of features, including solid piling, bridge piers, gently shelving beaches and mooring chains, as well as using the units to find our way down a narrow channel of soft mud. We gathered together five contenders: three from Echopilot and one each from Garmin and B&G, fitted them to an old 3.6m (12ft) dinghy and put them through their paces in Poole Harbour. However, it does provide imagery of topographical features too, and hence could be of use in spotting hazards. While Echopilot and Navico are in direct competition, the Garmin product is a little different, aiming to find fish at a limited range ahead of the transducer – they provide a version of the transducer designed to fit a trolling motor shaft to facilitate scanning around the boat. Navico, the parent company to Simrad, B&G and Lowrance, recently announced a forward sonar transducer and updated software for their SonarHub module and plotters, while Garmin have developed a version of their high-definition Panoptix fishfinder designed to look ahead. Various iterations of their forward-looking technology have sold all over the world, and their only historical competitor disappeared some time ago. But if you’re nosing up a river and simply want an early warning of a shoal, or are nervous of finding the right spot to anchor in a rocky loch, wouldn’t it be nice if your echo sounder gave the depth ahead of the boat? Best forward-looking sonar: What’s available?įor years, the undisputed king of the niche market of forward-looking sonar has been Ringwood-based Echopilot. One option is to jump in the dinghy with a leadline or sounding pole and carry our your own mini-survey beforehand. Some places are still poorly charted, and even in our well-surveyed UK waters there are moving shoals which defy the efforts of hydrographers and harbour buoyage. A good survey and a precise position has been the key to keeping boats off the rocks for years, but there are times when this isn’t an option. We do it all the time, using the chart and calling it passage planning. The traditional approach to looking ahead has always been to do so before you take your boat anywhere near a potential hazard. But this approach only works in gently shoaling water: abrupt changes in depth could spell disaster. ![]() It’s a fair bet that if the depth is steadily decreasing, the time will soon come to change course. That’s where forward-looking sonar comes in.Īdmittedly, the conventional sounder can tell you a lot, and in recent years plotters have started to display not only current depth, but also history via their fishfinder screens. If you wait until the sounder reads zero, it’s too late. Looking ahead is the Achilles’ heel of the conventional echo sounder, which can only tell you the depth of the water in which you are already floating. Would you like to be able to spot an obstacle before your boat hits it? Of course you would, and so would every other sailor in the world.
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