Steering Pedestal Changes
The original pedestal with its long throttle and shift levers and conspicuously large round speed and depth gauges had a distinctly retro look to it. The look was reminiscent of an old science fiction spaceship bridge and would look right at home as a prop in a Flash Gordan movie.
With no need for a throttle and shift lever and with the age of the gauges (likely analog since both had gain potentiometers on the back), the section above the steering portion of the pedestal and below the compass had to be removed. A new support for the pedestal bars was needed, therefore new bars. New instruments were needed.
Some of the work described here is partially completed. When complete work will be described in completed work web page.
Removing the Old Steering Pedestal Bars
The compass was easily removed to access the steering pedestal, though the bolts were somewhat frozen in the aluminum casting. The compass bolts were short phillips head 1/4-20 pan heads. The aluminum casting on which the instruments and the throttle and shift controls were mounted was very difficult to remove. The bolts were also 1/4-20 but were long and with slotted flat heads. Over an hour of heavy pounding with a hand held impact screwdriver was needed to free them. Because of their length, they bent and were stuck in the housing that was being disposed of anyway.
The old pedestal bars were 1" diameter with 12½" spacing. The bars were short, just under 4'. The bars came off with the aluminum casting that was removed.
Removing the wiring was a bit difficult as well due to the way the wires were routed aft of and under the steering cable pulleys rather than forward of the pulleys.
Removing Engine Controls and Old Instruments
The old engine controls were on a section of the pedestal between the pedistal base and the compass. The old analog speed and old analog depth instruments were in cylindrical pods on either side of the pedestal. This style seems very dated, reminiscant of the Flash Gordon era.
New Steering Pedestal Bars
The new pedestal steering bars are 1½" diameter with 12" spacing. A NavPod TP325 12" top plate and NavPod AG218 AngleGuard were installed in 2020. This required new bases. The holes for the old bases were filled.
Steering Pedestal Chartplotter Pod
A NavPod GP2050-16 Pre-Cut SailPod has been ordered and received. This is pre-cut for the Raymarine Axiom 9 multifunction display, aka chartplotter. This display is compatible with quantum radar, chirp sonar, evolution autopilot, and many instruments. The display also provides built in GPS. A Raymarine DST800 Thru-Hull Smart Sensor was installed in 2020 to replace the two prior transducers which were removed. The chartplotter replaces the depth and speed instruments removed with the throttle and shift lever base.
The Navigation Instruments web page describes the full set of instruments planned to be installed over time.
Motor Controls
There are two candidate locations for the motor controls and display. One candidate is where the old engine controls were, on a panel on the port side on the inside of the coaming. The old panel is gone so this is just a hole which if not used for the motor controls will be a small locker. The other candidate is attached to the steering pedestal bars.
There is 16" between the aft side of the mizzen mast and the steering pedestal bars and about 10½" between the steering wheel and the steering pedestal bars. A wooden structure could occupy some of this space, offering a small foldout table and a place to mount the motor controller and display and perhaps an instrument or two (see Navigation Instruments). The motor controls could be mounted on one side of the bars, most likely the starboard side. If a table is provided the motor controls would be mounted high enough that the table would not interfere, even when folded out.
Of the two candidate locations, the wooden structure attached to the steering pedestal bars seems the more likely. This wooden structure has not yet been designed.