After two days of dismantling what seemed like the entire interior of the boat and getting tangled up in miles and miles of multi-coloured wire I finally seem to have got the new instruments installed in the cockpit. My first decision was where to put all the new kit. As on many wheel-steered boats they were previously by the wheel itself, but I don’t like this as it means you can only see them if you’re actually steering the boat.
Now, call me old-fashioned if you like, but I prefer to leave the driving to the auto-pilot while I loll around with a drink and a good book, snug in the protection of the sprayhood, but since as captain (hah!) I ought to know what’s going on I should at least be able to see the instruments.
My preference is to put them in some kind of pod over the companionway (or doorway down to the cabin for you landlubbers), that way they can be seen from anywhere in the cockpit. Unfortunately this meant starting from scratch and building a custom instrument panel, along with installing all the wiring behind the interior trim.
I started by ordering a snazzy new NavPod unit to house the instruments, then went foraging for some old steel tubing to make the supports. I wasn’t allowed to do metal-work at school as my maths was so bad so I had to have extra algebra lessons instead. It therefore gave me great pleasure to drill, cut, grind and generally mangle various bits of metal until I had two roughly similar tubes to support the pod.
Installing the instruments in the NavPod
Next I had to run all the wires up from the switch-board, through the engine compartment, up behind the interior trim, out over the hatch and finally up into the new supports and out into the instrument housing itself. This was the most time-consuming bit of it all, and took most of yesterday. Today was much more fun as it meant connecting everything up and bolting it all firmly into place.
I’m delighted with the end result, which has the main navigation instruments (depth, speed and wind) right in the centre and clearly visible from everywhere in the cockpit, with the main autopilot controls to the left, and the radar/chartplotter display to the right. I can now sit watching everything from the shelter of the sprayhood, and steer the boat by simply reaching over to twiddle my big knob.
The finished installation
The most exciting thing for me is my super new radar/chartplotter system, which is the big screen on the right. There’ll be another one down at the chart-table, linked by an Ethernet network so they talk to each other. As you can see it’s wonderfully clear for showing electronic charts, and interfaces to all the instruments and the radar so I can overlay actual radar targets over the chart and see the ships moving up the channel and stuff.
Just like a video game, and I can’t wait to get out to sea to try it out for real!
By the way, I’ve just found out how to insert pictures into my diary entries. It’s a little tedious so I’ll probably give up soon but it might make it a little more interesting for you, the reader. I always prefer books with pictures. Some colouring-in pages might be nice too for those rainy Sunday afternoons but I don’t know how to do those yet, I’m afraid.