Seafarer fix

Charles Beddingfield strips his 50 year old Seafarer Mk2 echo sounder to replace a failing neon flasher bulb

- Charles Beddingfield

Like many readers, I was delighted when the editor decided to have her old Sailor VHF repaired for use. Compared to modern electronics the old Sailor just looks the business.

For similar reasons the Tudor Rose still has her original Seafarer echo sounder. It's the Mk2, the one with a rounded, grey, 1950's style case. We thought it quite an extravagance at £25 in 1971. After 50 years it was still working except that its rotating flasher had grown rather dim. When it got bad enough I decided to have a go at fixing it myself. Nothing ventured, after all...

One of the beauties of old fashioned kit like this is that it is built with nuts, bolts and screws so that it can be dismantled. I deplore the modern tendency to fit things together with wretched plastic barbs so that they cannot be taken apart without damage. No doubt this makes them cheaper to manufacture but it inevitably means that stuff goes to the tip with very minor faults. This is no longer just an old man's gripe. Sustainability is the modern buzz word and I hope I'm doing my bit by repairing and continuing to use my period kit, thereby avoiding the pollution inherent in the manufacture of its replacement. Besides, the Tudor Rose is unashamedly old fashioned, so a period piece like the Seafarer just seems right for her.

Problem diagnosis

I began by cleaning the slip ring and carbon brush under the rotating arm, but as this made no improvement I diagnosed a failing neon flasher bulb. Searches online at first produced mountains of neon junk but no direct replacement, so it began to look like the Seafarer's days were numbered. Experiments showed that an LED could be made to work if soldered in series with the old neon, but whether it would show the nuance of flashes that the neon is capable of with differing seabed quality or the presence of fish I know not.