I have attached two photos, Before & After, of my lower helm. Originally, most of the helm space was taken up by twin panels of engine gauges covering my twin engines. Just off-camera to the Port side a 12" monitor was mounted on a bracket to display the chartplotter chart. A second small screen in this area showed a small, green radar image.
I ditched all that when I did the re-fit. The engine instrumentation which took up so much space was replaced by the small screen you see on the far right of the new helm. It is from Chetco Instruments: they provide an interface which converts outputs from analogue engine senders to digital gauges that display on this little screen, saving several sq feet of helm space.
This saving allowed me to install Furuno's NavNet 3D system and its 12" multifunction display. This display can be customised at will as a single, 2-screen split or 4-sreen split to show electronic charts, radar, video camera shots, engine instrumentation, depth, fish-finder, etc. So I could then get rid of the old monitor and radar screen altogether. The Carling switches on the far right are engine start/stop, blower and synchronizer controls. The Carling switches on the far left are for various lights, wipers, stabilizers, horn etc etc. The small screen on the left is an independent/redundant depth display.
When underway, I sit a laptop off the left where the old monitors used to be. This runs MaxSea's TimeZero Explorer software which interfaces with the Furuno system. It allows me to passage-plan at home & underway, provides a 2nd screen (for radar, for example) and redundancy should the Furuno system fall over (it never has).
All in all, a much cleaner and easier to use set-up than the 1985/1998(repower) set-up I inherited when I bought the boat.
