Since the New Year we've had several spare days in which to concentrate on maintenance.
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| Jobs Done (HF/SSB at left) |
- Refurbish instrument panel facia
- New HF/SSB
- Autopilots Networking/Location
When we originally bought Zen Again (Zen at that time) instrument panel was small with a book case aft. The nav table top was in two halves with instruments taking up a lot of space...
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| NavStation 2010 |
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| NavStation 2011 |
The first step of the refurbishment was removing the backup autopilot controller and the solar panel regulator from the panel. The former was to move to the cockpit and the latter moved below the panel to a spot previously occupied by a speaker. We now use bluetooth speakers aboard.
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| Relocated Solar Panels Regulator |
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| Initially stripped instrument panel |
With the laminex fitted over the polycarbonate the panel was looking a little sparse! So we attached a couple of pictures. For future passages we'll probably attach relevant reference material. By the way, the two boats shown are (left) Critical Path, a Viking 30, and (right) Degrees of Freedom, our lovely one-off Runnalls 38. Over the years Zen Again has become Degrees-like in so many respects.
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| Refurbished instrument panel |
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| Updated Zen Again Story |
When we initially fitted-out Zen Again for Bluewater cruising we fitted an Icom M802 marine HF/SSB. This replaced an Icom IC-7000 amateur radio which we'd had prior to buying Zen. The M802 proved to be a great radio as shown on this blog at various times...
On arrival in the UK in 2016 we decided to sell various items. We sold the M802 since it commanded a good price on eBay and we knew we wouldn't be Bluewater cruising for several years. So deciding to buy a new HF radio is an exciting step - we're thinking about returning to Bluewater again!
We've been researching options for some time. We decided to fit an Amateur radio since they are generally much cheaper but also offer much greater control. Many more buttons to play with! We decided on an Icom IC-7300.
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| Happy New Year to Zen Again! |
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| Unpacked! |
Installation was straight-forward. We had left the antenna feed and antenna tuner control cables in place, running from the NavStation aft to the lazarette. A few weeks ago I reconnected the antenna tuner output via the thru-deck to the backstay - it had been disconnected since the standing rigging renewal last winter.
Happily our Icom AT-140 antenna tuner (which we kept) is compatible with the IC-7300, only needing rewiring to a larger connector.
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| Up, Running & Tuned for the Shipping Forecast |
Some of you may have noticed from the top photo above that the radio isn't readily controlled manually from the NavStation. That's OK since Icom provide software to control the radio from a computer. That's how we plan to drive it at sea. In harbour I can play with the radio while sitting in the saloon - perfect!
AutoPilots
We have two entirely redundant Raymarine SPx5 autopilots. These have previously been connected into our NMEA0183 network. The latter is rapidly disappearing as we migrate to NMEA2000.
Although the SPx5 supports NMEA2000 it does not use a standard connector. Instead it provides bare-wire connection. Initial testing shows it works just fine. The only trick was that the power/ground pair must be connected as well as the data pair. The chartplotter can now see the autopilots.
With the networking accomplished we fitted the backup autopilot ST-6002 controller in the cockpit. It replaced the VHF speaker previously installed there. We want both autopilot controllers in the cockpit so we can "even up" their use. There's a switch in the NavStation which selects which drives the ram. A stock of rams completes our autopilot redundancy.
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| SPx5 autopilot in NMEA2000 device list |
Trust all's well where you are!
