Getting some Wind Part 2

Now that the Garmin gWind Transducer is securely installed on top of the Mast, time to work on the helm wiring.

First step is to extend the existing electronic's wiring in order to relocate the GPS & the Garmin Echo 300 echo sounder to their new home. That involves removing the existing silicone plug where the wires pass through the cockpit deck and below in the aft berth.

The existing wires are taped to the pedestal guard and pass through the deck which is sealed with a substantial blob of Silicone Caulk.

When the new cables are run through those holes, I'll install BlueSea Cable Clamps to waterproof the deck join.

I'll replace the tape with plastic tie wraps and clean up the deck when it's all done.

Helm Instrument Platform

The GPS is currently mounted on an Aluminium Bracket which has a 27" bar secured underneath that acts as a really good hand hold when climbing past the wheel.

The new GPS mount will also be the home for the Echo Sounder and the new Garmin Wind Instrument (GMI20)  So the bracket and handle bar have to come off first, I'll need them as the template for the new instrument mount.

I need to remove the legacy equipment wires that are fed through a hole in the pedestal.

Having a tough time figuring out how to remove the Compass so that I can get to the wires that are fed down into the Pedestal.

The existing wires seem to be secured inside the pedestal, and I don't want to just cut them off and leave them hanging inside, there's a chance that they could get entangled with the pedestal steering chain. I really want to avoid that issue!

Guys on the C34 Forum advise that I need to remove the compass light fitting (the black piece on the top leading edge of the compass) and that will allow me to twist off the stainless steel cover.

I'll find out this weekend.

We're still gearing up for our shake down cruise in late September, and getting the electronics projects out of the way is a big part of that.

It'll be interesting to see how this project works out. And working on a boat is at worst fun! at beast, great fun!

And, as I have stated often, when you work on your boat, you learn a lot about it, it's systems, and yourself.

Making Progress

Here's the sketch of my idea:

 On Saturday, I built the new instrument platform in my garage, well, out front of the garage, at this time of year, the front of the house is in shadow throughout the day, much cooler.

Here's the old GPS Mount and grab bar (Peggy claims it had her name on it, like it's gonna get her!)

The bar is too long and the angle bracket has a good bit of surface corrosion, what you would expect of about 25 year old aluminium. The bar is going away and I'll clean up the angle bracket.

In the background is the Starboard that will be formed into the new Instrument Platform.

 After removing the GPS mount from the bracket, I could see how wide the new platform needed to be in order to have the Echo Sounder, GPS and the new Wind Instrument neatly setup.

So I should have some Starboard left over for a few other small projects.

The platform should have enough room on the ends to form handholds in place of the killer bar.

The angle bracket cleaned up nicely just using my multi-tool sander. No mods needed to the bracket at all.

The round cut out is shaped to match the top of the Pedestal Guard tubing. 

Of course, I got carried away with the construction process and so didn't take any more pics until I got everything setup on the boat.

One of the 'smaller' projects is to install the VHF Remote at the helm. As I was already working on the wiring that passed through the deck in the cockpit, this was an easy addition.

Complete!

 Well, almost! The entire system is installed, all the instruments are working and the VHF radio remote mike is installed and works great.

In this picture, it's easy to see the instruments, and the mike on the right. The handholds are easily strong enough and easy to grip when getting behind the wheel.

There's enough room on the instrument shelf to put a note pad or chart printout.

The Garmin Wind instrument is awesome, and when we install the Depth/Speed/Temperature transducer (during our next haul out) the data from the transducer will be available for the GPS and the GMI20 (that's the instrument on the right :) )

The Wireless Server interface is mounted on the V-Berth aft bulkhead, It connects to the GND 10 which provides the interface to the Gamin NEMA 2000 network.

The GND 10 is screwed to the liner at the outside of the Port Cabin Center Cabinet. That's where I keep our Flags.

That completes the installation until our next haul out. Then I'll install the new thru-hull and transducer.

This NEMA 2000 network is cool. Basically, everything we add to the network provides data to anything else on the network. So the GPS can show the info from the Wind & Depth Transducer, and the GMI20 can show the wind, depth and temperature data.

Eventually, we may add capacity sensors to the tanks on Eximius, then the data will show how full they are, how much fuel, water and waste we have on board.

If we add an instrument to the Nav Table, then all that data will be available for display there too.

Good days work.