Depth sounder in the bow?

A transducer will never get a signal on the bow, unless you are in calm water and at idle speed. Too much up and down motion and wash for it to work. By the time you see shallow water on your depth finder while underway at anything more than 6 knots and you're going to be sitting on top of it anyways.

If you know how to Navigate then you should never run out of water in front of you! And if you're going that slow, stick someone out on the bow with a lead line taking soundings.

I see you didn't cruise the ICW in the Carolinas this Spring. The only boater who hasn't run aground is the one who owns a dock queen. But as you point out, it's knowing how to read the water and cruising at an appropriate speed that matters.

To the OP, you can get forward facing sonar. The transducer is back in the clean water, but it looks forward.

I took a 50' yacht to Myrtle Beach in January from Ft. Laud and the ICW the entire way. Georgia is far worse than the Carolina's. In jekyll island it is 1.5' in the middle of the channel at low tide.....mud river isn't far behind in depth....run on the mid to high tide. Also doing 4 knots on the ICW isn't really feasible if you're trying to get somewhere.

Well in those kinds of depths forward facing sonar isn't a solution either. And it has been explained already why no boats have transducers in the bow. Besides even at eight knots in say a 60 footer, what do you gain in reaction time, a second?

We fitted a forward looking sounder.

Not too expensive and worked well. Mounted about 5ft from the bow (so it was always in good water) and slightly off center so the centerline of the keel/cutwater was there to protected it.

Can't remember what brand but similar to this.

EchoPilot - 3d Forward Looking Sonar

As others have said, you want the transducer in the smoothest, least turbulent water possible. Also the least amount of deadrise. Two things not happening at the bow where the boat is breaking the water. And fuggedabout it altogether on a planing boat. You can consult Airmar, who makes virtually all transducers, if you'd like to go right to the source. And to repeat, what is that second or two really buying you even if it could be made to be accurate and reliable? Again, there is a reason, really, why you never see it done.

The issue with forward scanners, which comes closest to solving your problem, is they too want to be installed midships or further back, and a have an effective scanning range of as little as eight to as much as 20 times the depth . see the link posted above. Do the math for a sixty footish yacht in ana area with, say, six to to 12 foot depths. Great for detecting rocks and sea mounts in deep water though.

Saltysenior

So your the one that causes the 20 boat backup in the ICW. 2Knots? You finally gave the forum some "facts". I'm sure you're getting through to all of us. If you want a hummingbird up front, just install one! All it takes is some fiberglass inside the hull for the transducer. Don't forget to glass it parallel to the apparent waterline. IMHO, too many folks present a problem for discussion and then yell at us for our comments. No thank you. And BTW - a hummingbird?

Taking lead line readings at the BOW would give you the most reaction time. A transducer will not work there for reasons everyone stated unless you want to put one on a removable pole that you deploy when going 2 knots. Your best bet would be to have a tender with both a chartplotter and depth finder and follow 100-200 yards behind the tender at 5 knots.......

Personally I wouldn't take a 6 1/2' draft into 7' waters unless I absolutely had to. And, if I did it wouldn't be very far......I would avoid it if in any way, shape, or form I could.

Except in rocky areas you almost always get warning of shallows. Granted it may only be a second or two but it's there. When in a questionable area one eye never leaves the depth finder. Before seeing 5' you'll generally see 10, 9, 8... Remember also that if going slow it doesn't batter much if your bow plows into sand. It's the props you're protecting. Also, the color or transparency of the water is only one tell tale. There's also the texture. If you have good water in the the crinkle stay out of the glassy and visa-versa. Another telltale is the shoreline. What happens there continues under the water. A point on land will continue with a sandbar. The inside of a bend tends to shoal more than the outside, etc.

I wouldn't trust a Hummingbird to protect me from that 6" clearance. Don't have a solution when that close except to go slow as Sonar is great for objects and general slope but if you go into an area with that small a margin of error you're going to get some bottom along the way.

I also don't know your trick to going 2 mph or 1.7 knots. Neutral? In and out of gear?

It can work and I have been on several boats with transducers in the bow. In fact it a couple of Browards I ran had them.

I found them handy for poking around in the shallows at very slow speeds. And since they only work well up there at slow speeds you just have a second sounder on board with a second transducer mounted in a more traditional location.