Show your helm!

[FONT=&quot]280 Chris Craft Catalina, the VHF was an afterthought. Though not a particular good one.
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Steelydon[/FONT]
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here is mine ... Older technology, but it is functional.

I'am back home till spring and the boat is 250 miles away, this is the only pic that is close to the lower helm and it's not much. And I have none of the flybridge.

This post is great keep them coming getting some great ideas for when I get to mine.
Troy

MurrayM said:

While low on snap & sizzle, bling, or the best / newest of anything, it's big on love...breakfast at the helm this day consisted of scambled eggs with pepperoni, pancakes, and coffee.

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The slower you go, the more time for life's luxuries. My last boat cruised at 28 knots. Try eating breakfast and keeping a lookout at that speed!

Old school

Added new radar chart plotter since these pictures, distribution panel for shore power and generators.

It's not as fancy as most of yours, but it's mine!
I'll have a nice woody pilothouse someday...

Here are picture of ours. In the pilothouse we are replacing the Gray Helm face with Matte Black and adding a iPad dock in addition to the MFDs this winter.





Norm Miller
Quiet Company
Great Harbour GH47

Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

River Cruiser said:

View attachment 34619
I'am back home till spring and the boat is 250 miles away, this is the only pic that is close to the lower helm and it's not much. And I have none of the flybridge.

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Ron, how do you like your track-it-TV?

Wow, Norm. That really IS a glass helm. Clean layout!.

Spottsville said:

Here are picture of ours. In the pilothouse we are replacing the Gray Helm face with Matte Black and adding a iPad dock in addition to the MFDs this winter.


View attachment 34637View attachment 34638


Norm Miller
Quiet Company
Great Harbour GH47

Sent from my iPad using Trawler Forum

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Beautiful boat and beautiful helm. I love those GH47's. Out of curiosity, how did you get in to Indiana or do you keep it in Florida?

Before & After photos of my upper helm. I ditched the original analogue Cummins gauges x 2 and replaced with a single small digital monitor (from Chetco), which freed up a lot of real estate. Then had local shipwrights built a mounting module to support a 15" monitor, the Chetco panel, a/p control. etc.

Before & After of my lower helm. Again replaced acres of Cummins analogue gauges with Chetco digital panel; installed a Furuno NN3D 12" MFD front & centre; and replaced original switches with Carling types. Not shown in the Before photos, I had small chartplotter and radar screens mounted off-centre to port previously....that space is also now freed up.

Aquabelle said:

Before & After photos of my upper helm. I ditched the original analogue Cummins gauges x 2 and replaced with a single small digital monitor (from Chetco), which freed up a lot of real estate. Then had local shipwrights built a mounting module to support a 15" monitor, the Chetco panel, a/p control. etc.

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Looks nice - Can you still see bow sprit nose and close-to-water in center of venture window while seated on bridge?

I'm a bit embarrassed to post this after some of the stunning helms pictured. But, Hey, you've got to start (or End) somewhere. This little 28 is gonna fit our needs just perfectly at this stage in life..

I'll detail it out once we settle on it later this week..

Heron that little beauty has a bow thruster can I borrow it ?

siestakey said:

Heron that little beauty has a bow thruster can I borrow it ?

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Ha ha! Yes, a nice bonus, especially on a boat this size. Did the sea trial Monday and it worked swimmingly!. Should make the boat handling that much simpler....

Given the cost to retrofit, I consider this a BIG bonus!
From the haul-out on Monday:

Art said:

Looks nice - Can you still see bow sprit nose and close-to-water in center of venture window while seated on bridge?

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YES.....no interruption to sight lines at all

timjet said:

Ron, how do you like your track-it-TV?

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I like it, have used it while underway and while anchored without any problems. I've been waked and didn't loose the signal, I'am sure if I took a large wake on the beam it would be lost momentarily, a tows wake while anchored didn't cause any problem. I like the price and the fact that I can pay DirecTv $5.00 for another receiver and keep it on the boat. The set up is easy make sure it's plumb, 12v for power and the control is on a flat 6 conductor telephone type cable. You find the satellite the 1st time, set the elevation (there is a website for this) point the dish in the general direction and lock it to the shaft. Then use the control to bump the rotation left or right till you have the best signal, push 2 buttons on the control simultaneously and it's set. After that all you have to do is power it on and push the find button and it will find and follow the satellite. On a fast boat making quick sharp maneuvers it may not react fast enough but I've never had that problem, it stayed on the satellite thru all the maneuvering into the marina and backing into the slip until it was blocked by the roof. During the set up I slid the boat out of the slip far enough to acquire the signal and snugged up the dock lines so the boat wasn't getting moved by the waves or what current may of bothered it. This way I was able to get a signal in the high 90% range, I reset the elevation again at this time to maximize the signal. If I remember the directions correctly every 60 miles that you move north or south the elevation needs to be adjusted. I had to do this last year and all it takes is to it the find button and loosen the lock bolt and raise or lower the dish to maximize the signal, took me 10 minutes or so by myself with help (someone watching the screen) would of been maybe 5 minutes.

Here is the helm in the wheelhouse.

River Cruiser said:

I like it, have used it while underway and while anchored without any problems. I've been waked and didn't loose the signal, I'am sure if I took a large wake on the beam it would be lost momentarily, a tows wake while anchored didn't cause any problem. I like the price and the fact that I can pay DirecTv $5.00 for another receiver and keep it on the boat. The set up is easy make sure it's plumb, 12v for power and the control is on a flat 6 conductor telephone type cable. You find the satellite the 1st time, set the elevation (there is a website for this) point the dish in the general direction and lock it to the shaft. Then use the control to bump the rotation left or right till you have the best signal, push 2 buttons on the control simultaneously and it's set. After that all you have to do is power it on and push the find button and it will find and follow the satellite. On a fast boat making quick sharp maneuvers it may not react fast enough but I've never had that problem, it stayed on the satellite thru all the maneuvering into the marina and backing into the slip until it was blocked by the roof. During the set up I slid the boat out of the slip far enough to acquire the signal and snugged up the dock lines so the boat wasn't getting moved by the waves or what current may of bothered it. This way I was able to get a signal in the high 90% range, I reset the elevation again at this time to maximize the signal. If I remember the directions correctly every 60 miles that you move north or south the elevation needs to be adjusted. I had to do this last year and all it takes is to it the find button and loosen the lock bolt and raise or lower the dish to maximize the signal, took me 10 minutes or so by myself with help (someone watching the screen) would of been maybe 5 minutes.

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HMMMM... Sounds interesting. Can you get Netflix movies? We're avid movie watchers just before bed. Disk outlets are disappearing quicker than popcorn at a movie theater! We used to bring bag full of good movies with us for each boat outing. I see that coming to an end. Fed Chair, Alan Greenspan's correctly descriptive coined term "Creative Destruction" strikes again!

44 Ocean Alexander

Perhaps a little overkill for a 42' boat, but I like to know where I'm going.

Tonic

Wow you have to start a thread and walk us through all that

Tonic, seems you need a bridge crew of three.

siestakey said:

Tonic

Wow you have to start a thread and walk us through all that

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Ummm, sorry, but I thought it would be obvious I was kidding. 'Twas a random image from the intertubes (with small lettering added). My just slightly more humble, actual helm...

Tonic, that's much more practical.

Art said:

HMMMM... Sounds interesting. Can you get Netflix movies? We're avid movie watchers just before bed. Disk outlets are disappearing quicker than popcorn at a movie theater! We used to bring bag full of good movies with us for each boat outing. I see that coming to an end. Fed Chair, Alan Greenspan's correctly descriptive coined term "Creative Destruction" strikes again!

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No, I get showtime, HBO and some other movie channels, or I can buy movies from a list of more current ones. I like TCM the old movies have a plot not just explosions and car wrecks.

Well, I've not got the boat yet, waiting on survey, but judging condition of boat, unless there is a hidden surprise, everything should be o.k.
In the meantime, I've set aside a Lowrance HDS-12 for the command bridge, and
an HDS-9 for the cabin helm. I figure more time spent at the Bridge deck than in the cabin, so put the big unit up top. Radar figures in there too. On the newest models of Lowrance GPS/RADAR/GPS, everything overlays seamlessly.Can't ask for more than that. It should be noted that Simrad owns Lowrance, so some of the best radar technology has been produced by them...

Tonic said:

Perhaps a little overkill for a 42' boat, but I like to know where I'm going.

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42 feet... wide?

Some of these superyacht bridges are just bananas. I don't even know what all of that stuff does! It reminds me of the Monty Python hospital sketch, where they wheel in all of the machines (including the one that goes PING!) for no reason, other than to look impressive.

I work on a 730 foot cargo ship, and our stuff is light years behind yachts. The monitor we use for the chart plotter is fuzzy, and it's got duct tape holding it to the coffee stained formica countertop that serves as an entirely too small paperwork station. My autopilot is a 30 lb chunk of lead with a lever and a knob, and there are 4 switches to to turn it on or off. the pilothouse rattles and squeaks, and I have to pee out the door. The most important piece of equipment here is the coffee pot. Oh, and don't turn the big radar up past the two mile scale, because it makes the TV cut out in the galley.