Cockpit Upgrade

It all started during the eight day cruise a couple weeks ago. Our Garmin chartplotter started getting a bit wonky. I thought it may have been because of the big splashes it took a few times in Vineyard Sound one day.

I brought it home and plugged it into a power supply in the shop (dining room table actually) and it was still just as dead.

The Up-sell
I started pricing some replacement options for the Garmin,   This was a 441s, the "4" meaning four inch display.  Maybe we should upgrade to the 5 series or 6 or 7?    Finally we decided to future-proof the thing and go with a Raymarine multi-function display.  The thought being that we will eventually add a Radar system to this boat and this display will work for that.  And besides, I don't want to go through the hassle of replacing a pedestal guard pipe ever again.

I ran the idea by Matt LeDuc from Fleet Yacht Sales, and Kyle Medina.  Matt was the broker who sold us to Fujin.  Kyle was the master who did the major structural rebuild and upgrade before our first season with her.

I'm still not sure how many shares of Raytheon Matt owns, but he was all over the idea of doing the Raymarine display.

The only downside - this thing is freeking expensive!   Over two grand!

It grows
Like anything else with a boat, nothing is simple.   Changing to this display will mean totally redoing the pedestal guard and instrument pods.  This of course means un-wiring everything that is currently mounted anywhere on the guard.  Also, the old guard was a 1" diameter tube.  The world has since gone with 1.25" tubes so stupid things like the drink holder won't work anymore without some modification.  It also means the top plate of the pedestal will have to be replace, which means removing the compass and....  Anyway  I called Edson Marine and told them what I was doing and they successfully relieved my credit card of another $800 for new pedestal guard, pedestal feet, top plate, instrument pod, and mounting hardware.  I should say they were incredibly helpful and friendly and it was really this conversation that made me sure I could do it myself.

We were able to do a certain amount of prep work at home.   I got the faceplate cut out.  This went flawlessly.  The only difficulty being that the jigsaw blade heats up the plastic so much as it cuts, that it actually melts back together after the blade passes!

Getting ready to cut out the faceplate in the new pod

Measure twice, cut once

Preparing the mounting holes for the pod didn't go all that smooth.  Later we found that there was an even more fundamental problem with how we did it (which I have to partially blame Edson sales for).  I did all sorts of careful clever measurements to mark the centers of the mounting holes.  The guard tubes are 9.5" apart and so were the centers of my holes.  Luckily, I only cut one hole out and placed the pod on the tube to see what it would look like.  First mistake becomes apparent!   Because the mounting holes go in an angled part of the pod, the spacing needs to be actually MORE than 9.5".  Unfortunately this means that our pod will not be centered on the bars.  We decided we would just not tell anyone.   Since I only cut one hole before discovering the mistake, I drilled the other one where it needed to go and all is well.

Bob posing with the C90W mounted to the pedestal guard

To the Boat
Next step was to get to the boat and determine exactly where the placement of the instruments should be.  Besides the new Raymarine C90W display, we have our Autopilot control head in a single Edson pod.  The positions have to be determined ahead of time because we have to drill holes in the tube for the wiring to pass through.  (it turns out that drilling holes in a stainless steel tube is fun)

Bob eyeballing the new guard up against the old guard

The Transplant
We got the holes drilled at home and brought everything down to the marina to install.  Within about an hour we got had things pretty well mounted and we were ready to start re-wring things in.

The first step was to get power to the C90W display and smoke test it.   It woke up and eventually found satellites and figured out where it was.  This is good!

Next, I hooked up the X/5 autopilot control head and motor to the autopilot computer down in the lazerette

Removing the old pedestal guard and wiring

Working on the Autopilot connections in the Lazarette.  I am reminded of the wise words told to us by our Surveyor:  "never hire a fat surveyor"

Removing the compass so we can swap out the top plate with the new one

Linda removing more of the Pedestal parts to get to the top plate

The display is ON!!  I'm sending this in to Raymarine hoping they will make me "Mr. August" in their 2012 "Marine Contractor Hunks" Calendar.  The dorky reading glasses make the look.

Testing
After applying power to the display, it came to life without any complication.  Well not much.    Next was to see how badly I broke the Autopilot.   Apparently "a lot" is the answer.  It lit up but it wouldn't actually work.   It was getting late so I figured I'd come back to that another day.  When we were almost out to the cars, we realized we forgot something so I went back to the boat.  I thought I'd check the a/p wiring one more time.  Everything looked fine.  So I stepped though the display functions of the controller, and eventually it made 5 beeps and started up!   I guess since I unhooked everything something needed to reinitialize.   So the a/p works!

Snapped this picture with the iPhone after getting the a/p to work

Post-mortem
There are a couple things I'm disappointed with:

1. The "Built-in" GPS receiver of the C90W is not very sensitive.  I realize they added the built-in to this latest generation to make it a simpler installation but to say that you don't need an antenna because this has it built-in is like saying you don't need a real camera because your phone has one built in.  Yeah it does, but it kinda sucks.  I have a feeling there is a dedicated GPS receiver in our future.
2. Edson steered me wrong about one thing when they sold me the stuff.  They told me I'd need TWO of the ball mounts for the large instrument pod.   I drilled out the mounting holes considering there would be only two.   Once you put this heavy unit in there, it's very clear that there is NO WAY that two are enough.   In fact within an hour, the pod has deformed its shape already.   It should have four in a nice square pattern.   Unfortunately, I've already put two at the vertical center point of the pod so if I add another two, underneath them, it still won't be as stable of a mounting as it could be.  Even when I picked the stuff up from the Edson factory, the guy didn't question why I was only getting two.  Ironically they could have sold me more stuff (these ball mounts are $70/ea) and I'd have a better installation.
3. This is minor but what is up with the dust cover of this Raymarine display?!   To unsnap it, with bare fingers is just about impossible.  You feel like you're going to tear the bezel off!   I think I'll be filing down the plastic tabs a little bit.