Marking time

 The last week has been quieter, as were are basically just marking time before our last work days. Our checklists are getting shorter, and we are now mostly in a holding-pattern waiting out the last few days of work. Our week has been split between Hartwell’s lock station, Dow’s lake pavilion, and the downtown Ottawa lockstation.

OMG pliers cause cancer! 

But only in California Whew!

Our first night was at the Ottawa locks. I went downtown by myself and the long grey line was completely empty. Wow. End of June and nobody is staying downtown. Got myself parked in the middle of the dock, and hooked up shore power. Just a quick note, normally when we tie up to a Parks Canada dock we try to park at either far end of the dock in order to leave lots of space for other people. In downtown Ottawa we park as close to the middle as possible. The Ottawa grey line dock runs from the Laurier bridge to the Mackenzie-King bridge. The city's crackheads tend to hang out in the shade under these bridges, so we have learned to avoid the ends of the docks. There has been a noticeable increase in the homeless population since COVID, and also a noticeable increase in ambulance runs downtown. In the three days I was there it seemed like there was an ambulance at Rideau and Sussex every two hours or so. Anyways, I plugged in to shore power and went on board to switch on the breaker. mmm. Electricity no worky. Called the lockmaster, and was told that the shore power was not working properly and the city was sending someone to fix it. Needless to say, we had to run the generator that night to cool off the boat, right near the peak of the late-June heat wave. 

Got a little hot in the salon so I set up the fan for Eevee.

Chillin downtown Ottawa

Our second day one of the boats parked near the NAC left so I moved the boat up beside the NAC (parallel parked it by myself), where the power outlets were working. SCORE! Then grabbed a cold shower (we ordered our new water heater several weeks ago and the supplier screwed up, more on this in a later post) and walked to work for a meeting and to have lunch with Louis. Later I brought Louis back to the boat and showed him around. 

During the day they drained the locks to remove debris from the valves. You don't get to see the lock mechanisms everyday. Fun to watch.

I also did some work on the front canvas. One of our zippers was not closing properly, and I hade done a temporary fix using zip-ties (boater's duct tape). Caroline from Irish Seams gave me some template material to show where to extend the canvas, so I made a template and we dropped off the piece to her. That night, we were able to pick it up, and our front canvas is now fully operational.

During the day, the canal weed whacker came by. With the reduced boat traffic on the canal, the weeds are really taking off. The water looks more like August than June. It's green!

That night we enjoyed a jazz-fest concert at City hall, then returned to the boat to watch game 6. Oilers managed to win and force game 7. Freakin awesome.

Taylor came down from Toronto for our retirement party and stayed on the boat with us. Turned out to be easier for her to take the train downtown than for us to pick her up at the VIA station. The interior of the boat is still pretty cluttered as we are still trying to find storage locations for everything, but we managed to fit her in. We took her out to Lone Star for dinner, then retired for the evening with some more Jazz Fest music. Saturday morning, we moved the boat to Hartwell’s before driving to Dow’s lake to shower in preparation for the family retirement party.

The afternoon was spent at the Navan curling club, which Micheline and Rachel had booked for our retirement bash. Thanks to everyone who stopped by.

We messed up and didn't get one photo with the whole family, so went for two.

We then returned to the boat for the night. 

Next morning, dropped Taylor at the train, after having a huge laugh at McDonalds drive through. The guy at the window was wearing a minion hat (part of a McD's promotion), so when he comes to the window I said "banana". We got a good laugh out of it. He said it was part of a children's promotion, then asked us if we had any children with us. We said yes, then pointed to Taylor (who is 28), so he gave her a minion hat. When he returned with our food, he gave each of our own minion hat to wear. I drove around with my minion hat on. Made our morning!

After dropping Taylor at the train, we then went to Shelly's to drop stuff off and pick up more stuff. We visited for a bit then back to the boat before the rain hit and spent the rest of the day putting more stuff away. The boat is small, and we brought too much stuff. We are slowly saying good-by to things we don't need, but each time we clean out the salon, it gets filled up with more. In a few weeks we should have it sorted, but always nervous to throw some things out in case we need it later. This has already happened a few times.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet. Louise went in to work, went to some end-of-school dinners, while I did chores and maintenance on the boat. One highlight was watching game 7. Sad to see the Oilers lose, but they had a great run. The game could have gone either way. Hopefully next year a Canadian team can go all the way.

The morning after the hockey game, I was sitting in the boat after Louise left for work, when this guy wearing a work-vest stops at the boat and knocks. At first I thought it was a random guy snooping, but when I got a good look, recognized Russ.

We has some coffee and I gave him a tour of the boat. That day I was planning to take the boat down the locks by myself, and since he is an experienced boater, I asked if he would be interested to help. Of course he would!

We locked down and got set at the bottom grey line. Russ had this huge grin the whole time, I think his cheeks will hurt for a week.

We had a few other visitors drop by. Joe stopped in one morning to get some papers signed. I gave him a short tour and we visited for a bit. The next morning we got a visit from Pierre and Sam, and had coffee with them before they (and Louise) headed in to work. 

On Thursday Christiane stopped by the boat to sign some paperwork, and we had a short visit. Ended up having to run around a bit that day to take care of some last minute legal issues - the lawyer's secretary refused to help us, and we ended up getting Christiane's help to get things done. Helps to have connections.

One chore I tackled was replacing the anodes on the engine. The hull anodes were done by Hurst over the winter, so all I needed to do was the engine and genny. Some of the anodes were still good, some were finished and two broke off when I tried to remove them. The engine anodes are all pencil-style, which is a short zinc rod threaded onto a brass or stainless steel plug. Half of the engine anodes come with the plug already attached, but the other half are just rods. You have to remove the old ones from the plug and re-install a new one. Zinc is a soft metal, and when you unscrew the rod from the plug, about half the time the rod breaks off, leaving the threaded part in the plug. Nice.

I had to drill out three of these to replace the zinc rods. After drilling out most of the threads, I was left with a plug with clogged threads. I do not have a tap set to clean the threads, so I soaked the plugs in some toilet bowl cleaner for about a half hour. Most toilet bowl cleaners are just 10% hydrochloric acid with some fragrance, an antibacterial (it's blue so you know its good), and additives to make it sticky. The acid dissolved the zinc, leaving the stainless steel nice and shiny. Science!

In the above you can see the bubbles above the stainless plug that form as the zinc dissolves.

Nice and Shiny!

Last day of work was Friday, we both finished around noon, and were officially retired. While I was waiting for Louise, they did an interview on the dock beside me. As soon as we both got back to the boat, we got underway to start our retirement journey!

We are now officially loopy!

Engine maintenance

Our main engine is almost at the 2000 hour mark, and so it was time for the valve lash adjustment. Diesel engines require this to prevent valve damage as the engine ages, and at the same time there are other items that need to be inspected. Our engine is a Caterpillar, and I wanted the work done by a Cat mechanic. One thing about having a single engine boat, if the engine fails you don't have a backup engine, so it is important not to skip out on maintenance. I was also not 100% sure about previous maintenance, boats sometimes are not as well taken care of as cars. And we all know that not every car is well-taken care of. So, I asked for a few extra things to be done including changing the coolant. In principle, changing coolant is a DIY job, but I have never done it and don't think that now is the time for a youtube tutorial, so I am having the experts do it. I set up an appointment with a mobile Cat service to meet at Hartwell's lock to do the work. In preparation for this, we journeyed to Dow's Lake pavilion, where we would be leaving the boat for a week or so to get some chores done besides the engine service.

Our friend Mary Jane served as crew for this trip, so we literally showed her the ropes, and then set off on our trip north to Dow's lake. I was very surprised at the lack of traffic for a sunny Saturday. Overall, boat traffic on the Rideau has been incredibly light this year, lots of empty slips at all of the marinas. Guess people are doing other things after the burst of boating we saw during COVID. There are a lot of boats still shrink wrapped, and we have been told by other boaters that marinas have been refusing to launch boats because owners have not paid their bills.

Along the way we passed a trimaran going south. Looked like a space ship on the water as we came around a curve. MJ was a quick study, and we passed through a variety of locks on our way to Dow's. 

Dock spider on the lock wall (lock spider?). Photo does not do it justice, was not going to put a hand beside it for scale.

Once we got to Hog's back, Louise got on the phone about a slip with Dow's. She had called last week to try to reserve a spot, but was told they could not take reservations. WTF? I was there last week and their docks were empty. Took three calls, as the staff there did not know what to do. Are we the first transient they have had this year? Anyways, she eventually talked to the right person, and they had a spot for us for a few nights. While all this was happening, we got hit with a short thunderstorm, so we had to wait in the lock until it passed.

Waiting in the rain.

We got tied up and connected, then visited with MJ and later Collin, who stopped by in the afternoon. Then we had to do a bit of car shuffle, as we had left our car at Hurst, but now needed it in the city. Thankfully MJ was willing to shuttle us, and after a loooong day we were in place at Dow's lake.

Did I mention this was a Saturday? Dow's lake has ballrooms that it rents out for weddings and other events, and we were parked right beside the DJ booth. Not the most peaceful sleep, as the party continued late into the night. The worst was at 4 am when the cleaning staff turned the volume to 11. Anyway, we survived and the next day we were off to the house to wash windows, and finish our hardwood floors. 

Back on the boat Monday, I took the boat to Hartwell's lock, locked through solo, and parked at the top. I spent the day installing our Starlink antenna and router, but could not run the wiring yet as I needed to keep the salon area empty for the mechanic. At the end of the day, I moved all our stuff from the salon to down below in preparation for the engine work the next day. Eevee helped.

Next day, up at 5 am, quick breakfast and then opened up the engine room in preparation for the mechanical work. The mechanic arrived around 7, and started in right away. I ended up helping with the coolant change (he got me to hold the bucket), and I also asked him to show me a few things around the engine. He showed me how to change the fuel filters and prime the engine, and suggested a few things that I should do around the engine room. Turns out a couple of valves were loose when he did the lash adjustment, so very happy I did it a bit early. One thing I learned is that changing the coolant on this engine is not a DIY operation. The mechanic had to do quite a bit of dis-assembly to get at the drain. He told me that it could be DIY if I installed a drain valve, but he pointed out that this was not cost effective as it would require replacing a few parts. He mentioned however, that when it is time to replace the hoses, that it would not be much more expensive to add a valve, so this could be part of that service in the future. Overall, the coolant only needs to be changed every 4 years or so, so having an expert do it is not a bad thing.

The next day I went down the lock by myself, and went back to Dow's lake, then docked in a tight space beside a Nordic Tug looper. Love the stern thruster. 

Spent the day finishing the Starlink install, and also installed our new helm chair. Louise had complained that the old helm arrangement did not allow her to see when we were underway, so we bought a pontoon boat helm chair which I installed beside the helm. When Louise arrived at the boat after work, she finished the Starlink connection (she handles all the high-tech) and we watched the Stanley cup game on TV.

The next day started with some boat yoga. When I installed the helm chair, I was not able to tighten the bolts, so Louise helped by holding a screwdriver while I snugged up the bolts. Even got some help from Eevee. Test fit and all is well. The seat base was made with a piece of scrap plywood I had in my shop. Will paint it sometime in the next few weeks. I was off to uOttawa as the department was hosting a retirement event for me. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, it was a really nice send-off. 

The day after, Louise's school held a retirement party at Mexi's, one of the restaurants at Dow's lake. I stopped in for a beverage and a piece of cake, and gave boat tours to a few of the teachers who wanted to see our new home.

The music teachers sang a song for Louise (tune of Gilligan's island), and everyone enjoyed nachos and cake. I hope I don't have to wear the hat.

Next day, Louise and I went back to Hurst to collect our dingy. I had made a dingy bridal out of some rigging rings, shackles and soft-straps I got at Canadian Tire. The front one fit perfectly, but the straps were too short for the back. I improvised with some rope, and we eventually got it secured. Next, a quick shower for me and we were off to the Long Island lock station, where we met up with my sister Ruth, and my brother Bruce. Had a nice dinner at the Swan. Louise does not drink beer, I think the last time she did was about 30 years ago. But that night she had a beer, I wonder why?

Up the next morning and into the locks headed north. Full lockage with another Mainship (Surface Interval), an old Chriscraft, and an expensive pontoon. They loaded us in the lock with no room to spare. The dingy was really close to the back wall and escape ladder. Yikes. We had to make sure the boat was pulled forward so it didn't scrape. Luckily with a full lockage, they drain the water slowly so there is less current. Locking went well, except for the departure. 

Normally when you leave a lock, you go slow for the first little bit to secure up your lines, then increase speed. The guy in the Chriscraft left the lock second, we were third to leave. I gave him the normal interval to depart the lock, then we cast off. As we were coming out of the lock, I had to manoeuvre clear of this guy as he decided to STOP just after he cleared the lock to police up his lines. Not only me, but the pontoon behind us was stacked up, and so he also needed to wiggle around the Chriscraft. Eventually the traffic jam cleared, but WTF! 

Next lock I waited for buddy in the Chriscraft to exit, stop, and then re-start before leaving the lock so I would avoid the cluster. Have seen a lot of things on the canal in 14 years but this was a first.

The reach between Black rapids and Hog's back is often full of canoes, kayaks and paddle-boards. The Rideau canoe club is located right beside the lock station on Mooney's bay, and paddlers often take advantage of the calm waters early in the day. Today was no exception. We passed racing canoes and kayaks near the railroad bridge. I went dead-slow in this stretch, which meant I was rapidly falling behind the first two boats in our convoy. Was able to speed up slightly for a short stretch before rounding the bend into Mooney's bay. Here we were greeted with a capsized canoe, with a chase boat giving aid. Dead-slow past the rescue. Then a dragon boat full of kids decided to stop cross-wise to the channel, so we had to stop and "hover" until they cleared the way. During all this, the pontoon behind me lost patience and passed us and the dragon boat, plowing quite a bit of a wake. Surprising, since rushing won't affect the bridge opening, the staff won't swing it until all the boats in the convoy have approached. I guess people in expensive pontoons don't like waiting for kids in dragon boats. Anyways, with the delay and having to go dead-slow we ended up significantly behind the rest of the convoy. Right on cue, as we arrived, the lockmasters swung the bridge and in we went.

Since the pontoon was going through Hartwell's, I told him he should exit the lock third (out of order) since I would be stopping at the next lock. Unfortunately, he did not wait for buddy in the Chriscraft to stop at the lock exit, came out a little hot, and so had to jam on the brakes (reverse down) to avoid crashing into the stern of the Chricraft. The little pleasures in life to watch the show on the water. Once the drama cleared, we cast off and trundled off after the others.

At Hartwell's, the two mainships peeled off and stopped on the grey line while the other two boats continued on. We passed a quiet evening putting things away on the boat, then settled in to watch Edmonton thump Florida in the cup final. Connor freakin McDavid YES!

Outta Control!

 When we arrived at Hurst marina last year, the first thing I did was arrange to have the engine, generator and throttle system inspected. Was not sure about the previous maintenance history, so wanted to find out if there were any “gotchas” lurking. This inspection resulted in replacement of the raw water pump on the genny, and a recommendation to replace the main engine throttles and throttle cables. The throttle control was “loose”, and there was significant stretch in the cables. The price for the throttle work was kind of high, a consequence of the size of the boat and the necessity to run new cables, and the price of the new Morse shifters (turned out to be cheaper to replace the shifters than to repair them). Given the size of the estimate, we therefore decided to wait for a few weeks before addressing the issue, as this would give us time to explore options.

One option that was now on the table was an electronic system. We had these on a previous boat and really liked the way they handle. As well, the electronic systems have certain safety parameters built in such as shift-speed limiters, delays for certain kinds of operations, and the ability to "lockout" control stations to limit inadvertent speed changes. The modern systems are very reliable, and in the future could be linked with our thruster in a joystick system, or we could easily add a station at the stern to help with docking. Some time spent on the internet indicated that the price for such a system would not be a lot more than the manual one, provided I could install the system myself.

I first spoke to the marina, as they were a Mercury dealer and might be able to supply a mercury-based product. However, they were not interested in pursuing the project. I then contacted Marine Electric Technologies in Orillia, who was a Canadian dealer for Glendinning systems. Initially, they were reluctant. The owner explained to me that these systems are not always DIY, and he did not want me getting in over my head. He was was especially concerned about twin engine installs, as he mentioned that getting the engine synchronizer to play nice is tricky. Our boat is a single engine, with a low-tech Caterpillar engine (think bulldozer) that is controlled using two push-pull cables (no electronics). Since the install was the simplest possible scenario, on the simplest type of engine system possible, I was able to purchase the required components. All of this happened last summer, at which time my plan was to install it in the fall before haulout.

As it turned out, the system did not get shipped to us in time, so it spent the winter in my basement. This gave me time to familiarize myself with the components, and to plan the install. Turns out the hardest part of the whole exercise was finding a place to mount the actuator, which is the box that interfaces with the engine. A schematic is shown below.

The front firewall in the engine room was already full of various things and would not be a suitable mounting location. I wanted to place the actuator where it would be out of the way, and not likely to be damaged by someone moving around in the engine room. The install guidelines also mentioned planning and install with the shortest cable lengths and minimum bends. This left three possible locations in the engine room.

The possible locations for the actuator and control cables are shown in purple.

Because of the way the cables attached to the engine in a for-and-aft layout, there was no single location that would not involve some cable bends. Putting the actuator beside the engine would keep it out of the way, but would block access to some electrical systems on the starboard side. These side locations would also have to mount the unit on the ceiling over the fuel tanks, making for restricted access to the unit for calibration. Side placement would also produce a problem of cable location, in that the cable would intrude on the work-space on either side of the engine, placing the cables at risk of accidental damage when someone was moving around near the engine.

Placing the unit behind the engine seemed to be best, as this would allow for protected cable runs, access for calibration, and provide a dry area. Unfortunately, this is an area where it would interfere with transmission access, and present the risk of damage by someone moving around in the region for maintenance (the main DC distribution box is here). However, this was the best location I could come up with, and so I made my plans accordingly. I made measurements for cables, wires, connectors, fasteners etc. based on this location, and devised a system of supports for the actuator. Over the winter I gathered the parts I thought I would need, and got the project planned out.

I made one attempt to ask for help on the Mainship group on Facebook. I asked those in the group who had electronic shift where on their boats the actuators were placed, hoping I could use this info to help in my placement decision. I did not get any helpful comments, instead I got some troll-like answers telling me that electronic throttle controls were bad, and I should not install them. Thanks for nothing. A couple of other owners were interested in details though, so I may reach out to them directly about my experience. Anyway, on with the show.

Fast-forward to the spring, and I’m on the boat scouting out the engine room. I check where the existing cables run, among other things, and all of a sudden “click” I realize the best place for the actuator. Under our stairs is a storage area. In the fall, when I was snooping around on the boat for this project, this space was occupied by a washer-dryer. But, this unit was removed shortly afterward. It did not work, and so we removed it to send for repair, as we felt it was cheaper to drop off for repair than to try to get a repairman on the boat. In the end, we decided to get rid of it, as it was 20 years old, and for the cost to look at it, we could buy a new unit for much cheaper. Over the course of the winter, we abandoned plans to buy a new one, as we felt the space would be more valuable for storage. When I realized there was space to put the actuator under the stairs, I am sure you could hear my brain go “chunk” from the next room.

On the boat I took some measurements, using masking tape to lay out things on the floor, and discovered that all the distances worked out. The location would be ideal, since it was protected under a floor, and in a very dry and secure place. As the space was primarily storage, this meant that there was minimal risk of the unit getting in the way of anything, and the cable runs would be in exactly the same place as the existing cables. Score!

The only thing I needed to change was the mounting system, but as luck would have it, mounting was super-simple in the area. I made some supports out of 1 X 3 clear pine, cutting them a little long so I could fit them in on the boat. 

Mounting the actuator was the most critical part of the job, and the one I thought would be most time consuming. As I found out, this was the smoothest part of the job. I started by making some measurements, again laying out everything with masking tape. After checking my measurements about 10 times, I made a mock-up of the unit using cardboard cut to the same dimensions as the actuator. I then used this to double check all of my measurements another few times. Part of this involved some crawling around in the engine room to make sure there would be no conflicts. I was especially worried about an electrical conduit that was on the bulkhead in front of the engine. This I checked and checked and checked, as I would be drilling in this area and did not want to mess with any of that wiring. That can of worms was something I absolutely did not want to open.

I installed the components in stages. First the supports. With those in place, I re-did my mock-up to check everything again. All good. Next, I drilled for the actuator using a template I had made out of ¼” plywood. The actuator holes had rubber isolators and I did not want to damage them. As well, because of the weight of the actuator, and that fact that it might be in an awkward location, I had taken a few minutes to make the template in my workshop. That way everything would be precise, and I would have no worries about damaging the rubber isolators. With the template temporarily bolted in place, I again checked measurements. 

Now it was time to drill through the bulkhead into the engine room. A couple more measurement checks, then I drilled a small pilot hole using a long bit. This way I could spot the location exactly in the engine room by checking where the bit protruded. All good, I am far from the conduit, and there is lots of clearance for the cables. I then used a 2” hole saw to make the two holes for the cables to pass through. This size is much larger than the cable diameter. The reason I did this is that the cables pivot slightly when the actuator is operating, and I did not want the cables chafing on anything. Also, I had some trouble finding cable flanges in a smaller size. After drilling the holes I installed cable flanges on both sides. The template was removed and replaced with the actuator so I could check the hole placement. All good, time to bolt the actuator in place.

With that done, I ran the various wires (all three of them), which took 6 hours of boat yoga, limbo, and lots of up and down in the engine room. 

I did not run the CAN bus cables to the throttles yet, as I wanted to power up the unit and test it first. To test, I had built a support out of scrap plywood so I could support and protect one of the throttles while I checked the system. This way I could observe the actuator directly with the throttle unit beside me while testing.

Power up, the throttle starts beeping and flashing lights. Alarm mode. Uh oh. Tried to put it into troubleshoot mode and failed. WTF. To see if I was missing something from the manual, I ran the calibration procedure on the actuator using some approximate measurements, but after resetting, still had the error. 

I emailed Gene the marine electric tech, hoping he could help. This was Sunday morning of the long weekend. Not expecting any reply until at least Tuesday, I cleaned up and put everything for this project away, then started work on some other chores.

That afternoon I get a call from Gene. He had seen my email and called to offer some suggestions. On a long weekend Sunday! Wow! I wrote down what he told me to try, and the next morning got back on the project. Long story short, same outcome. I sent him a detailed summary of what I did, including a short video of the throttle system’s alarm lights flashing and beeping. He called me back later that morning to tell me he had spoken to Glendinning and it turns out they had forgotten to include a component module with the original system. He arranged to have it sent directly to us, arriving at the end of the week.

Got the component, and connected it temporarily to the system so I could test. Everything is good. In retrospect, since I had the system at home all winter, I should have bench tested everything. I have no idea why I didn’t (dumbass), but that is how it goes sometimes. With the system now working, I ran through the calibration procedure for real, using the temporary throttle mount so I could do all without moving around. I ran through the testing checklist twice, everything checks out.

Now to install the throttles. Again, a few hours of running cable, and removing the old controls, but I got both in place. I then ran through the checklist two more times with Louise at the helm, while I double checked all of the measurements. We then started the engine, and checked the shifting with the boat tied tightly to the dock. All looks good. In the photo below you can see the electronic control unit on the right.

The next day, I had Corey, the senior tech at Hurst, go over my install. We operated the controls, and he checked the cable tensions, and lever throws. He made a couple of suggestions to improve the wire layout near the actuator, which I followed the next day. We did our shakedown cruise a few days later, at which time I made a small adjustment to the throttle cable tension (see the post on our shakedown cruise).

Overall, I love the system. I really like the feel of the electronics, and am very happy with the support I got from Gene. I could not believe how fast he got back to me, and how helpful he was. Really impressed.

Dash switches

When we bought the boat, the dashboard needed some TLC. Some accessory switches and breakers were unlabelled, and there were some issues I wanted to address such as switches operating too many things, and other switches being unnecessary. I needed to add a switch for the throttle system, and the engine start/run/stop switch was worn out. This latter issue was a concern for me all last summer. The switch worked fine, but was very sensitive when shutting off. Just touching the switch would shut down the engine. Because of the way this switch operated, it acted like it had an internal sear (gun owners will know) which appeared to be worn, and so the shut-down position was on a hair trigger. To protect against accidental engine shut down, I used some drawer handles I got at Home Depot to make some safety bars, like on the old Apollo spacecraft.

Over the winter, I planned the layout, and got a dashboard fabricated by a local plastics shop. I added an extra switch for the electronic throttle system, and instead of a single start/run/stop switch, I split the wiring into two switches, START and RUN/STOP. The way this is wired, the START switch gets it power from the RUN/STOP one, which matches the wiring diagram of the old switch. I removed the old VHF switch, as I was replacing the old radio and the new one had a built-in on/off switch. The old panel had a 12 volt outlet on the dash, right beside the engine controls. I found this location inconvenient, so planned to move the location of the outlet and so the new dash did not have a hole for the outlet. Finally, I added a formal label for the RADAR position.

Swapping out the panel was not difficult, but it is one of those jobs where you work carefully and take your time. First thing I did was take several pictures of the existing wiring. That way I could re-construct everything exactly as it was later. I then used masking tape to loosely “group” the wires to each switch, so I would not mix them up. 

Then, it was just a matter of moving each switch, one-at-a-time, from one panel to the other. Each time I moved a switch I checked the wiring using the photos, and then tested the switch (each switch circuit is powered by its own breaker, so I could energize each circuit one-at-a-time). The last switch was the engine start switch. This one I checked about 10 times before I energized the engine circuit. Engine started right up and shut down normally. 

With this done, I screwed the new panel to the old location. Because I removed some switches and the 12 volt outlet, the new panel was shorter than the old. Part of the plan, since I needed to move the thruster control slightly to clear the depth sounder display. Unfortunately, I re-used the old screws, which resulted in me breaking the new panel. I assumed the old screws were pan head, but they were bevelled, and when I did the last turn on the first one the plastic cracked. Swapped out the screws and the rest went in fine, but now I have to fix my new panel. Welcome to boating. 

I used some plastic “lumber” I have on board to close the remaining gap. Later, I will install the 12 volt outlet on the side of the helm, where it will be more convenient. Final step was adding the "safety bars" over the engine switches. With the new set-up these are not really necessary, but I liked having them so I put them back. In the photo below, you can see them covering the engine switches on the right.

Have used the system over three small cruises and am really happy with the system. The "feel" is great, easy to switch between stations, and I love the lockout feature. The only thing I need to do is to get better at the startup routine. The system has a safety feature that disables the shifter on startup, so there is no danger of loss-of-control. I don't always remember to switch to active mode when getting underway, but this will get better with practice. I also learned some things about my engine, and about a few of the electrical systems on board. Will be helpful in the future when things break.