Update on electronics fusing:

In my post #23 third picture, you can see all 3 in-line fuse holders for my electronics. Radar fuse holder pictured over the top of the red wires, and the gps units pictured to the right of the main breaker panel.

I will likely change this in the future, but I know some of you are doing this now. I tried to open the yellow fuse holder and in the process likely broke the glass fuse inside by doing so because I wanted to have a few extras onboard if they blew. Anyways, I did a search online and cannot find what the fuse size, type etc is for the GPS units. I contacted my vendor, and he said "6a". I then asked what size? 20mm is too small, whats the length? he replied, he always cuts them off and runs it thru a 6a fuse block. I searched (not very hard) the manual and garmin's site for the fuse rating/ and size so the ends connect and cannot find any info, so I have an email into them for the fuse size and rating. The radar I believe draws more amps so it's a higher fuse rating.

If I get the answer I need from garmin I'm going to run the system with their inline fuses for this year. If not, I will place a 3 to 6 fuse block holder where the in-lines are mounted to the right hand side of the panel, but run a wire to the thermal fuse below and skip the breaker panel leaving two spaces open for future VHF and Radio install which I can live without. I do have a hand held VHF and can keep it charged via the 12v plug.

I have a question for you all, I need some type of adhesive to mount no drill zip tie holders to the underside of my leaning post. not epoxy hard, and not so soft like marine goop, something in-between I want it to flex a bit? The leaning post is out of the boat so any position and weight can be added to help adhesion. I used something about 10 years ago doing a "hull saver, transducer mount" and the material wasn't specified http://sternsaver.com/ but basically set in 1 min and the bond was and still is unreal. but that was a very rigid piece of the boat w/o flex. OR, if you know of some screws that can hold in very thin fiberglass without poking thru the other side, OR super small pan heads and hardware that do I'm all ears. The intent here is to secure wiring under the leaning post I have which is an aggressive area in regards to how things are stored in a boat.

If anyone buys a new hull in the future the stern saver is the way to go. don't poke holes in the boat.

I have something like this stuck on a starboard wall under the console and it’s been there for years,,, it’s been hosed down more than once...

Great lookin wire job mate. .... :-)

https://www.cabletiesunlimited.com/5...BoCAsMQAvD_BwE

stern saver Used one on my boat very easy and the nice thing you can move the ducer if the 1st location isn’t preforming as expected ,
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Thanks Gup that's what I'm looking for
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She's in! Didn't break anything too
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Console In
 

Called my dad Thursday afternoon to review his weekend schedule and see if he was still good to help me with the console move/install. Said he could Saturday. My goal for Friday was to buy some wood and build a ramp to get the console from the garage into my truck. Friday came and went without me even leaving the house and aside from having a plan for a ramp I didn't make any effort to get it done.

I called my dad Saturday morning and said I think I'm going to postpone the big move because I didn't have a ramp. He suggested we go rent a small landscaping trailer at HD and he had a bunch of 1" and 4" conduit / pvc pipe to roll it up and into a trailer. Half hour later he was pulling into the driveway. My two little guys were at each other pretty good and my little guy decided he wanted to go with us. My dad mentioned at the dump in his town was a basketball hoop for free and my wife said what are you waiting for go get it. So we went to HD, hooked up to a trailer quickly and filled out paperwork in maybe 10 mins and were on our way. We went to the dump and picked up the basketball hoop, and a peg perego pedal front end loader was there too! double score LOL. My little guy slept the entire time, missed everything, but woke up to the bounties of the dump.

Backed the L/S trailer in unloaded the hoop and little ride on tractor, set up the conduits and pipe and rolled the whole console in like nothing. Drilled it right into the wood bed of the trailer and added some overkill straps to tie it down.
Attachment 67794

Next, pulled the cover off the boat which I had rigged up with a step ladder and ratchet straps to keep the snow and rain from turning it into a pond over the winter. tied down the main rigging, hooked a battery up with jumpers and tilted the motor up for travel, and backed my dad up to the hitch. I pushed the 7 pin adaptor into his plug and he turned his lights on to test the trailer lights and the adaptor instantly caught fire! I pulled that out and luckily he also had a 4 pin, which we tested with him at the lights on the truck in case that went up in flames too. I bought that adaptor last year and it worked great no issues but must have had a short in the 8" of wiring it has.

After adding a couple lbs of tire pressure to one of my trailer tires we were on our way to his construction site job where he had a loader.

Attachment 67795

After picking it I measured from the ground to the bottom and checked it against the boat on the trailer. an inch and a half short, fck. Luckily 40ft behind the loader was some bit curbing with stone only on the back side which was our 6" ramp. Looped the boat around next to the curb and we got the console over the lowest side of the boat beam then backed the boat up over the rigging and fuel tank and lowered it into place, removed the straps, and pushed it to the marks I had set on the deck when I first purchased the console. After my dad parked the loader, he called out "It looks good" and I yelled back with a big smile "YES!"

I did end up setting almost all the screw locations because it looked centered from the side profile, and after picking it in the straps it didn't have any lean. we knew it was rear heavy but not enough for it to want to tip in the sling/under its own weight, and if anything the position it is in now is well centered in the hull weight-wise.

Still have a bunch of things to consider like will the shifter cables link up to the throttle body? can I move it backwards at all because I wanted to close the gap between the console and the leaning post original position? why did the trailer light adaptor burn up? How will it perform? Was there a full shipment of garmin transducers on that Suez canal ship? For now, I'm happy that it is in, really happy my operator watched my hand signals closely, and that I can almost feel the water under my feet. Next weekend splash? probably not realistic logistically, two weeks yes certainly attainable.

Attachment 67796

The rental time was 5 hours 15 min, most of that time was spent driving. $47 trailer rental vs. whatever wood costs nowadays.

Few other pics
 

Attachment 67797

Attachment 67798

Job well done! Great pics to go with the post are appreciated.

Awesome job, nice work

Looks fantastic. Can I ask were you got the mast head light ? Or was it already on the dog house
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lumitec contour series 2nm led. Mine is one meter to meet the CG separation parameters I think there is also one that's 20". It locks into a groove in the stow and deployed positions.
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I'll add that the plastic cover for the base on that light seems flimsy, and the length of the light at 39" will require some kind of rubber holder with a strap to keep it from smacking into the roof while traveling. I mounted it reversed because I didn't want the base in the way of the radar and the base also had a built in shim which I reversed so it wasn't sticking up higher.
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Speaking of radar trying to figure out a device that will push low branches up and over the dome , rather that tearing if off! I have a few ideas and with it being so close to the dome it shouldnt create a return on the radar .

My idea is to mount a piece of pvc Board 2in wide mounted with a bracket to my Top angled to rest on tbe top of the dome. In hope the branch or wire rides up and over 🙏
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How bout a clamp on antenna/ rod holder/ flag bracket with a removable dowel.... I Dun No....:huh:

Is it that high???? mine had no problem with obstructions from Warwick to Cumberland...

Not that’s it’s high , many side streets in my town dont get a lot of big truck traffic or TLC from the town
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I just cut down about 12 branches in the yard for the same reason
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I trim my neighborhood each year from standing in the boat....

HAHAHA

All the big wire is done except battery connections waiting on batteries (shortage of AGMs just like transducers) waiting on 2 40 amp battery fuses too for the charger. Hooked up the lines to the helm and cylinder, hopefully a boat mechanic friend can come over and give me a hand to bleed them. Bolted down the radar and silicones up the thru holes.

I think this weekend I'll rig up some battery bank to turn the motor over and do a preliminary system check. Will try and take a video.
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Hooked up the engine battery. Made my harness connections, put the kill switch tab in, key in, got the beep alarm, turned the key... Nothing. Repeated that five times. What did I screw up?

Sat in silence for 30 seconds before I realized the neutral relay wasn't in because the shifter isn't in yet. Held that down and VRRROOMMMM! So good to hear that sound!
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Just painted some of the old topside fixtures like the kill switch nut, and the key switch nut, and the throttle housing. I had used a Moeller flat black spray already but it doesn't match the panel at all. Ended up getting a qt of total boat flat black 1 part paint, will see how that goes. If it sucks all of the plugs I make won't need epoxy for a while but will all be black haha
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Hydraulic steering is all set.
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Attachment 67843

Had to put the helm wheel on to fill/bleed the lines. My friend Kyle who was a boat mechanic for a while helped me do this task. I wish I knew the exact hard port to hard starboard before, but now its 4.25 turns with the hydraulic steering in and the entire install was super easy, and SeaStars' support prior to purchase was excellent. One note on the recommended spacers for my engine was that I used one more thin 1/16" SS washer which took out almost all of the play at the cylinder attachment to the outboard. The remaining play is all in the SeaStar bearings. Another side note is that if your throttle cables still have a length description on them buy that length for the hydraulic steering lines so you can run them tandem with the throttle/shift cables in a single rigging tube. Ill post a pic of that later.

3 steps back
After getting the steering in and having the engine fire no problem and everything else working I found myself working towards getting this thing in the water. In doing so I would be shortcutting a ton of things I want to do right. Anyhow, I was proceeding down this side-tracked road and tightened down a gauge brace I set with an epoxied anchor and it popped because I put way too much on it. Sounded like a gunshot. When that popped the "get this in the water game" ended.

Took everything out again, upper and lower panels, steering wheel, gauges, cut wires on battery monitor. Took the lower panel over to my massive mess of a fold out workbench in the garage, popped the gauge out, dremeled off the epoxy, dremeled out a mushroom shape at the bottom of my hole and reset it with 3m 5200. also added a bead around the gauge as well so this time I'll just snug up the mount hardware and it'll never move. 3 more days to full cure strength.

In the mean time, if you look at the attach pic, you can see the old mounting hole at the lower right of the pic. I'm going to fill that and the other no-use holes with a plastic based 2 part filler putty. sand and paint. I do like the color of the total boat paint I purchased but it did take about 7 days for it to cure and the finish sucked. Wish I could spray it all with an airbrush.... maybe.

Anyone here use velcro over screw snaps for seat cushions
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both have their plus's and minus snaps are neater when the cushions are out and should hold up and not blow out at Highway speed Trust me I know all about stuff disappearing from the boat at 65 MPH I use velcro sticky sided velcro for Knife holder or area i dont want to drill and the surface area allows for it to support some weight

I almost lost two bean bag chairs the first trip while trailering to the ramp despite doubling up on ratchet straps they were literally airborne, thank god they were looped around rod holders hahaha. Now they go under a cargo net lesson learned.

I bought 15lb hook and loop velcro and thought I'd do the leaning post cushion with that but I can see the material collecting crab guts, squid and whatever other bait in the material. Good call on the tool holder idea, I've wanted to add something to secure the boga and handheld vhf.

Project Update
 

Last week Thursday and Friday we had snow and rain. I was feeling a bit disconnected not getting in the boat for several days. Took the cover off Saturday morning and evidently where the canvas cover was touching the corners of the hardtop allowed water to come in and filled up my socket wrench kit and made enough of a mess that it took about an hour just to dry everything out. I got to sanding to prep for paint on the dash, grabbed an old poly resin in the basement I use for filling holes in plugs and put a circle of that on a piece of plastic. Went to knead the hardener and the toothpaste like tube exploded blue hardener all over me, the console, the deck. Cleaned that up, put the hardener in (way too much) mixed it and filled the holes I wanted to and it set up in about 3 min.

Attachment 67870
At this point I really didn't care if it was a bit bumpy, scuffed it up and taped it off for paint.

Attachment 67871
I opted for the quick dry Moller paint, and did 3 coats to the dash area and the upper keeper. It's a bit more grey than black but it serves its purpose of hiding the white drill holes that the panels don't cover.

Attachment 67872
36"x14" helm pad. I had this made from Mariners Warehouse down in FLA for a bit of OEM feel. I ordered it online, uploaded a Maritime logo and within minutes of the order going through the owner called me and suggested a different color combination because the logo would show better and he said it cleans up nice after fishing. The custom pad was about $5 cheaper than getting a seadek pad.

How thick/tall is that pad?