Installing Nav Instruments

Trying to figure out where to put a Navigation Instrument where it is the most useful can be a brain bender.  If it is going in a instrument panel makes it easy.  But if it is a free standing or bracket mount unit the install can a challenge to find the right place.  Where you can run the wiring, how long the wiring is, the size of the unit and where it is placed so you can read it and it is out of the way and protected all need to be considered.  Then add in the thought of drilling holes in your boat.  My wife goes nuts when it comes to drilling holes in her boat no matter what they are for.

If the unit needs to be connected to other instruments, you have to take that linkage wiring may be also involved.  Our two sailboats are over 20 years old and other than a compass they came with no other interments.  We have put things like depth finders, wind instruments, GPS on them and each time we have it has been a challenge on where to put the stuff.

What is nice about the new combo units are that they have multiple instruments built in to the same unit. My newest GPS Combo has the GPS, the chart plotter, a fish-finder/ depth finder, a compass, and it gives your speed underway, a guess on when you will get to where you are going, and a bunch more stuff I do not use.   All in one nice little box.  The box is water proof (so the directions say ) and more or less is readable in bright sunlight. 

I mounted the bracket for the unit on a board that sits in the cockpit where it is easily seen and used. The board has Velcro strips on it so it will not slide around when sailing, and when we do not need it, it can go into the cabin with the instrument still on it.  The wiring harness is the biggest limiting factor.  The Velcro let me mount it so no holes had to be put in the boat.  8-)  I also have Velcro in the cabin where it is stored so it can not does not slide around when stored. 

I think the biggest problem is seeing the display in bright sun. A home made shadow box is what I came up with for that.  The wiring harness is the only other.  The other option would have been to install it fixed mount, but I did not want it so it was exposed all the time.