Click here for the prior post in this thread where we build the glass helm console unit.
During our Christmas 2018 break we upgraded the flybridge helm. This was a pretty serious upgrade. When we bought the boat, the flybridge helm had a cheesy homemade Plexiglas door over a rough hewn hole on the left, and no cover over a very rough hewn hole on the right as seen in the picture below. There were stress cracks in the top gel coat because the console was not sturdy enough to hold a person’s weight without flexing. The hydraulic steering pump was poorly installed on a wood backing plate that was rotting and cracked. Thus if you leaned on the steering wheel it would flex visibly. The hole on the right hand side was quite a mess because there was a 1” bow in it from left to right. The Plexiglas windshield was cracked and the flybridge helm chair base was just wood that was rotting away.
During our Christmas 2018 break we upgraded the flybridge helm. This was a pretty serious upgrade. When we bought the boat, the flybridge helm had a cheesy homemade Plexiglas door over a rough hewn hole on the left, and no cover over a very rough hewn hole on the right as seen in the picture below. There were stress cracks in the top gel coat because the console was not sturdy enough to hold a person’s weight without flexing. The hydraulic steering pump was poorly installed on a wood backing plate that was rotting and cracked. Thus if you leaned on the steering wheel it would flex visibly. The hole on the right hand side was quite a mess because there was a 1” bow in it from left to right. The Plexiglas windshield was cracked and the flybridge helm chair base was just wood that was rotting away.
As a first step we removed the steering pump, the windshield
and everything else from the helm area (including the seat and its
pedestal). We also used an angle grinder to remove this crazy little hump
that was molded into the original design (you can see the cut marks at the red
arrows.
The hump was removed and our glass helm console was bolted
into place.
Then we added a piece of coosa to the front face and also
added heavy fiberglass backing to the steering pump mounting location (circled
in yellow highlight). We also glassed the sides of the new helm unit to
the existing console base.
The rear of the unit received a coosa
support which was then glassed in with 3 layers of 17 oz
cloth and epoxy. Because of this we will not have any problems if people
lean on it, etc. during operation. You can also see in this photo that
all of the windshield holes were filled as we do not intend to replace it.
With additional work, we glassed the front of the helm unit
to the steering backplate and the front panel, and
then cut out for the drawers that we bought for the left side hole. Keep
in mind that it was cold outside so it took longer than desired for each layer
to cure… The picture below is not the final state we left it in.
The whole thing is now glassed to the floor of the flybridge, to the sides of
the cowl, etc. What once was a leaky, weak unit is now strong enough to
take whatever we throw at it in the future. We will be able to hold onto
the steering wheel in rough seas or to lean up against it without fear that it
would break out of the console and that was a real concern before we did this
work.
Under the cowl we also installed the two engine monitoring
computers as well as the NMEA 2000 backbone.
This work represented a big step forward in getting the helm ready to
begin accepting electronics. Now that we
are at this stage it is time to start figuring out what we are going to do for
monitoring and control software on our big 21.5” touchscreen monitor. Here
is a short youtube video that shows one
interesting option that could be available for modification into something that
would fit the bill.
Next up: Integrating the glass helm console into the flybridge cowling.
Next up: Integrating the glass helm console into the flybridge cowling.
