Spray hood and depth sounder

I have fitted two stainless steel eyes on the cabin roof each side of the spray hood. With a lanyard through these, I can lash the hood down tightly when sailing (and towing). This helps forward visibility. It also means the lanyards are always there when you need them. I am aiming to have few or no short lengths of rope in the cockpit for sail ties, hood ties etc. These lanyards will always be in place, as will the bungy on the boom for stowing the mainsail.

I have bought a NASA Target 2 depth sounder

The photo shows the sounder, not fitted. The wooden patch shows where I plan it to go. Easy to see, won't get in the way of lounging back against the bulkhead and easy access to the wires behind. Wiring it up fills me with dread. Installing the transducer on the other hand should be relatively straightforward.

The BayCruiser has three flooded sumps at the stern of the cockpit. The middle one has a huge hole in the bottom for the outboard. As you can see in the photo, there is plenty of room for a transducer in the forward corner and no need to worry about keeping the hole water tight as it is flooded all the time anyway. What I am planning to do is drill a hole with a hole saw big enough for the transducer head to pass through. The hull thickness here is about 20mm in total (one layer 6mm ply, one layer 9mm ply and some plastic faring strips sandwiched between). The transducer head is about 22mm thick, so it will just be proud of the underside, so should have a clear view of the sea floor. I will fit a larger ply "washer" over the neck of the transducer, which will screw down to the hull around it and allow me to tighten the transducer holding nut. I need to remember to slop epoxy all around the exposed edge of teh hole to keep the seawater out.

It probably isn't the purist's location for the fitting as it is close to the engine and not at the absolutely lowest part of the hull. But the ability to install it without drilling through the cabin floor is worth it, I hope. The cable will pass through the fuel hose opening into the cockpit locker and I will have to drill one hole between that locker and the cabin to get it inside. Then all I have to do is build the switch board...