Helm and console integration part 1

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.

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.