Upper Helm weather protection

Dave_E · 07-09-2018, 09:57 AM

Hi All,

The good ship is in need of a total upper helm refit; all new gauges, buttons and indicator lights, and a VHF. Our new bimini has two front struts that attach at the front dash on both sides, making covering it with our present cover impossible. I get folding the bimini back and covering everything up during the winter, but not during the nice weather boating season. I look around the marina and see no one with covers on their upper helm areas. It does rain occasionally.

Are your engine instruments in any kind of waterproof enclosure? The VHF radio I want to get says "waterproof", so I guess that's OK. My sailboat engine panel was in a recessed enclosure. How are you set up?

Dave

ranger58sb · 07-09-2018, 10:05 AM

We have plastic covers that clip onto the face of a few of our electronics components... but we also have a custom Sunbrella cover that snaps down over the whole helm station. We don't have to use it all the time, but we do always use it during the summer months when we remove all of our aft enclosure panels.

FWIW, on a previous boat with bimini (versus hardtop) we still had side enclosure panels (clears, "smilies," etc.) all around... so we could enclose the whole upper helm during colder months.

-Chris

Comodave · 07-09-2018, 10:13 AM

When we bought our boat it had a full bimini enclosure. We put a hard top from hardtotop.com on and then patterned the front for EZ2CY panels and had them fabricated by a canvas guy in New Jersey. The fitted perfectly and are crystal clear to see through. We then fabricated the sides and rear panels. We do not have a lower helm so we wanted a full enclosure that does not leak.

dhays · 07-09-2018, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ranger42c

We have plastic covers that clip onto the face of a few of our electronics components... but we also have a custom Sunbrella cover that snaps down over the whole helm station.

We have the same, plastic covers over instruments as well as a Sunbrella cover that goes over the the helm station. We use the cover all year round other than when out on the boat when it is dry. In other words, I don’t bother to cover the helm station overnight when we are on the boat.

Crazymonkey · 07-16-2018, 01:14 PM

We have a bimini and side panels. Pretty much enclosed but need to treat the Sunbrella again as on a heavy rain it drips. Aside from that we have a cover over the helm electronics. All seems to be protected fairly well.