Advice on tips and tricks to fitting electronic equipment.

[wipe_out]

Hi,

Looks like we have about a week to go before the boat is back in the water.. We bought her with a broken engine and no "extras" at all for what I think was a very good price.. So the new engine is in, this week she will be anti fouled and have a new bilge pump installed and then back into the water..

Now the first thing I want to install is a VHF radio.. Seems simple enough right? I had a look at the helm yesterday to get an idea of what would be needed and it seems it's not so simple..

The entire helm is one big piece from the floor to the windscreen with everything mounted to it.. What adds to the complication is that the door to get below slides under this single section..

By the looks of it if I wanted to get behind there, for example if I wanted to do a flush mounting, I would need to remove the windscreen and then the screws holding the helm section in place.. I removed the cup holder yesterday and had a look through and it looks like even if I did that there wouldn't be enough slack on the wiring behind there to move the whole section away.. The only thing I can think of is that the whole thing was wired before fitting it to the boat and then the wires pulled through leaving no slack..

So I am thinking that flush mounting is out of the question..

The next option would be to bracket mount but I would still need power and the antenna cable fed through.. For power I could attach to the small bus bars but getting a screwdriver in there and attaching another wire would be extremely tricky to say the lest.. Especially because I can only get one hand through the removed cup holder.. The other option would be trying to "splice" into another circuit perhaps.. Obviously I would have the same issues with a chart plotter when I come to fit one..

Seems a total nightmare..

For those in the know are there any tips or tricks to adding and wiring electronics into the boat or is it pretty much always a PITA??

Thanks for any ideas or pearls of wisdom..

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[pvb]

If you do a Google Images search for "larson 254 cabrio", you'll find some pics showing where to flush-mount a VHF radio. See these for starters...

In terms of access, if you go inside the boat and close the sliding door, isn't there any access panel?

 

[wipe_out]

If you do a Google Images search for "larson 254 cabrio", you'll find some pics showing where to flush-mount a VHF radio. See these for starters...

In terms of access, if you go inside the boat and close the sliding door, isn't there any access panel?

Yes, I know that would be a great place to mount it but it seems to get it there you whole helm would need to be dismantled.. No access panels from inside either.. Behind it is the heads.. Although an access panel would have been a really good idea if they had thought of it..