[C320-list] Autopilot and instrument upgrade

[Scott Thompson]

Chris, you have my permission. Regarding the photos, I uploaded hi-res 
photos to the web site. If you view the photos in high-res mode you 
should then be able to save them with full resolution. I just tried this 
using Firefox and the saved photo was 4000x3000 pixels, same as the 
original. To be clear, I took the following steps: (1) opened the album 
web page; (2) clicked on a thumbnail photo to display the larger view; 
(3) clicked on the photo again to open it in full resolution (at this 
point it more than fills the screen on my computer); right-clicked on 
the photo to select "Save Image As ..." dialog. The resulting file 
appears to be identical to the original, with full EXIF data from my camera.


On 6/6/2013 8:48 AM, Chris Burti wrote:
> Scott,
> May we publish this in Mainsheet? If so, please send  hi-res photos
> directly to me.
>
> On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 8:30 AM, Scott Thompson <surprise at thompson87.com> wrote:
>> It wasn't cheap. Our bill was almost $19K when all was added up, including
>> the governor's 6% and labor costs, and a few weeks of dock time at the yard.
>> That also included two new Navpods, all new transducers and wiring,
>> including networking (SeaTalkng, RayNet, NMEA2000) for future expansion such
>> as AIS or Sirius weather module. It's a bit difficult to break it down by
>> subproject since a lot of the labor and networking costs are common across
>> multiple instruments.  The breakdown is (roughly) $2K for the new
>> instruments and networking, $4.5K for autopilot parts, $3.3K for
>> chartplotter and GPS and related parts, about $1K for the new radio, remote
>> mic and additional networking to connect the VHF to the GPS, and for future
>> expansion. The rest was labor, taxes, and some misc installation materials.
>>
>> Note that we re-used the old wiring in the mast for the wind unit, which
>> means that I now have a spare unused cable. If we had to pull the mast to
>> redo the wiring it would have run more. I contemplated spreading this out as
>> several projects for different years, but once you start pulling new wires
>> to the Navpods you are best off doing it all at once. I balked at the price
>> in the first place, but we made a decision that the 320 is the perfect size
>> boat for us for the forseeable future, and so were willing to make the
>> investment. To put this in perspective, the initial estimates for just a
>> wheel pilot replacement were around $3.5K installed, and the below decks
>> linear drive installation would have been about twice that on a standalone
>> basis once you allocate a certain amount of the installation labor.
>>
>>
>> On 6/6/2013 2:26 AM, Tim Fleming wrote:
>>> Sweet setup Scott may I inquire as to some of the costs?
>>> Tim
>>> Ole'
>>> #928
>>>
>>> On Jun 5, 2013, at 2:47 PM, "Scott Thompson" <surprise at thompson87.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have posted some pictures on the web site of the new autopilot
>>>> installation on my 1999 boat "Surprise." I was looking to replace my tired
>>>> old wheel pilot unit that finally failed with a "Seatalk Error" that I
>>>> couldn't solve last year.
>>>>
>>>> The album can be found here:
>>>> http://www.catalina320.com/mediagallery/album.php?aid=274&page=1.
>>>>
>>>> This is a below-decks autopilot using the Raymarine Type-1 linear drive
>>>> unit. The drive is mounted to the port side of the rudder post on the
>>>> lateral bulkhead that separates the steering gear from the aft cabin. It is
>>>> bolted to a custom mounting plate on the bulkhead, which is through-bolted
>>>> to a backing plate inside the aft cabin, just above the internal access
>>>> hatch for the steering gear compartment. The only part of the system that is
>>>> above deck or exposed to the elements is the P70 control head at the helm
>>>> station. The X-10 course computer is mounted just outboard of the linear
>>>> drive on the port side. A rudder reference unit is mounted to starboard on
>>>> another custom bracket attached to the corner of the shelf above the fuel
>>>> tank. The fluxgate compass is mounted in the same location as the old one,
>>>> on a stringer over the center line of the bilge, between the galley sink and
>>>> head door.
>>>>
>>>> Some notes on the installation:
>>>>
>>>> The linear drive drives the rudder through an Edson tiller arm that
>>>> points forward when the wheel is centered. The arm is attached to the rudder
>>>> post just below the main steering quadrant, which is the only possible
>>>> location. There is just barely enough clearance for the tiller arm to swing
>>>> un-obstructed in this location. The installer had originally planned to
>>>> mount the drive on the underside of the swim platform, which is a common
>>>> location for installations on the 350 or 355. However the swim platform is
>>>> relatively low on the 320, making that arrangement impossible. The selected
>>>> mounting location on the lateral bulkhead seems plenty strong, however, with
>>>> the added benefit that no holes were needed through the deck or hull.
>>>>
>>>> Use of the linear drive requires limiting rudder swing to 35 degrees in
>>>> each direction. To achieve this, some small blocks were added to the rudder
>>>> stops, which are molded into the bottom of the deck just above the steering
>>>> quadrant, for those who didn't know. (I didn't know where they were until
>>>> this project.)
>>>>
>>>> In principle, both the drive unit and rudder reference unit should be
>>>> mounted in exactly the same plane (or a parallel plane) as the tiller arm on
>>>> the rudder. Since the 320 rudder post is not "vertical" (i.e. is tilted
>>>> relative to the bulkhead and other surfaces in the steering compartment), in
>>>> theory the mounting plates and brackets should have some compensation for
>>>> the angle of the rudder post. They do not, but everything still seems to
>>>> work OK. I did not measure, but the linear drive appears to be within 5
>>>> degrees of the correct plane, which is the outside tolerance for mounting
>>>> per the installation instructions.
>>>>
>>>> Sea trial calibration was very easy. We had to do some big circles to
>>>> swing the compass. Unlike older units, the new system alerts you if you are
>>>> turning too fast or slow. We got maximum deviation of just 4 degrees, which
>>>> is excellent. (It is a mystery to me how the computer figures this out.) The
>>>> computer can compensate for up to 15 degrees. Then we put the drive in
>>>> "autolearn" mode. After a few minutes of crazy Ivans it was done. The only
>>>> tweak to drive settings I made was to turn down the drive response from 5
>>>> (midpoint) to 4 in an effort to cut power usage a bit. The unit still works
>>>> fine on 4. Cutting it further to 3 caused poor course-keeping, I found.
>>>>
>>>> So how does it work?  Like a charm. The X-10 steers extremely well, even
>>>> with a following sea. No more snake-wake for Surprise. The drive is barely
>>>> audible from the cockpit. I can't hear it at all except when sailing in very
>>>> quiet conditions. It is freaky to watch it steer, since it silently makes
>>>> lots of the same small adjustments I would make. It's really nice having the
>>>> cleaner helm station without the old ST4000 drive wheel and motor. I suspect
>>>> the new system uses somewhat more power than the old unit, but that is part
>>>> of the tradeoff for getting better steering, since the rudder is more active
>>>> than with the old system, making more frequent but smaller adjustments.
>>>> There is very little friction in the system, and manual steering is very
>>>> light with the drive in Standby. It's also nice to not have to think about
>>>> the drive clutch when I switch between Standby and Auto, since that is
>>>> completely automatic.
>>>>
>>>> I do have a few minor complaints. As previously mentioned, I had to give
>>>> up a bit of rudder swing. That doesn't seem to be much of an issue so far.
>>>> The P70 control head has a general purpose color backlit LCD display with
>>>> all kinds of display customization and bells and whistles possible. However
>>>> it doesn't have as much contrast as the older units, especially with
>>>> sunglasses, and I need to keep the brightness set to 100% in sunshine. The
>>>> "graphical" display mode on the P70 does not match the pictures in the
>>>> manual, and is an extremely distracting and lame "rolling road" animated
>>>> graphic. A lot of this doesn't matter since the new e95 MFD chartplotter
>>>> that I installed at the same time is highly customizable to show whatever
>>>> you might want.
>>>>
>>>> We also replaced the speed, wind, and depth instruments and transducers
>>>> at the same time, added an external GPS antenna, and the previously
>>>> mentioned e95 chartplotter, all from Raymarine. (Raymarine is running a
>>>> promotion where I will receive an i70 multifunction display for "free" since
>>>> I purchased the e95. I don't know what I will do with that.) In general the
>>>> new instruments are similar to the old ST60 ones that they replaced.
>>>>
>>>> The e95 is my first chartplotter. Previously I used a hand-held Garmin
>>>> GPS76 unit on a bicycle handlebar mount above the instruments, with a
>>>> data/power cable interfaced to the autopilot through a connector I installed
>>>> on the back of the Navpod. This system worked very well, albeit without the
>>>> fancy graphical displays, and with no chart information. But it used almost
>>>> no power and was a familiar and easy to use friend that worked well with the
>>>> Raymarine pilot through the NMEA interface. The e95 is highly customizable
>>>> and will show you almost anything you can think of with the right inputs and
>>>> enough configuration. It is bright, colorful (and power hungry) and comes
>>>> with a 300 page pdf manual that I am still trying to work through. I'm still
>>>> getting used to it and hope it will become as second nature to use as my
>>>> ancient Garmin. However I have a few complaints about it. It sounds a VERY
>>>> loud and annoying waypoint arrival alarm when I am still a good distance
>>>> from a waypoint. If I push "track" to accept the new course (and to silence
>>>> the alarm) it IMMEDIATELY turns the ship in the direction of the new
>>>> waypoint rather than waiting until I actually reach the old waypoint. On
>>>> several occasions this caused me to almost run into large buoys or fixed
>>>> markers, or to turn inside of them instead of passing on the required side.
>>>> Fortunately the Standby button is easy to reach. Hopefully I can find some
>>>> parameters to tweak so that the chartplotter gives more reasonable course
>>>> change instructions to the autopilot. And why can't they implement an alarm
>>>> that gives some warning before arrival, but doesn't sound like a fire alarm
>>>> until you actually get there? I'm also annoyed that the new unit has no
>>>> tide/current info unless I upgrade to "Gold" or "Platinum" Navionics charts
>>>> at a high price. And the Voyage Planner software is an extra $49 on top of
>>>> the $$$$ for the chartplotter, but is totally brain dead. However it's the
>>>> only tool I've found for transferring waypoint or route information to/from
>>>> the unit because Raymarine insists on using a proprietary file format. Seems
>>>> to me that the included software for the fishfinder, radar, AIS, weather
>>>> data, infrared camera, XM/Sirius radio, and Raymarine proprietary sound
>>>> system (none of which I have) should be priced extra rather than the simple
>>>> and buggy waypoint transfer software.
>>>>
>>>> Finally, we swapped out the VHF for a new ICOM model with remote mic at
>>>> the helm.  I finally have DSC and a working distress alert system.
>>>>
>>>> Kudos to Phil and his team at Electronic Marine in Annapolis who did
>>>> beautiful work installing all of the above on a tight schedule.
>>>>
>>
>
>