J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Instrument Beautification

Ananda's bulkhead mounted instruments are quite functional, but come up pretty short in the aesthetics department:



They're not terrible, but the variety of backing materials used to mount them (usually whatever I had on hand) and the fiberglass behind them in general doesn't really give them the professional, polished look and feel that I'd like.

So I decided to up the ante a little, and am fabricating teak plates that will mount on my bulkheads and give the instruments a little nicer of a backdrop.

Here's one such plate after rough fitting:



And here's the pair after finishing in the woodshop:



The edges are nicely rounded to meet flush with the bulkhead:



I figured I'd make a thread about this project as progress is starting to come more quickly. Sometime in the next few weekends, these will be installed, holes cut, and the instruments mounted. Stay tuned!

Alex - looks beautiful. Will you leave the teak natural, or cover with something? My biggest maintenance complaint about the J/30 was the topside teak that had to be maintained. When you keep up with it, looks great.... when you don't. Having no topside teak to maintain on my J/109 is one of its best features.

It'll be treated with Cetol, matching the toerail trim, grabrails, and the companionway hatch boards (as seen in the first picture).

I agree that the teak maintenance is a pain, that's why I don't do it I hired a guy to redo the wood every year. The boat always looks great and I don't have to lift a brush!

After 2 weekends of epoxying, drilling, filling, re-drilling, sanding, cutting, and sealing, the plates and boat have been united. They're ready for varnish (Cetol) and then mounting the instruments!

Once I had all the holes drilled, I test-fit them with all the screws in and had to step back and admire my handiwork for a few minutes. Then I took a deep breath, picked up the hole saw and carved them up!



They're sealed with butyl tape around the top 3 edges and around the edges of each cutout in the bulkhead. All bulkhead cutouts have the balsa core dug out at least 1/4" and sealed with MarineTex epoxy. Each panel mounts to the bulkhead with a grid of 9 screws, and each screw hole was overdrilled, filled with epoxy, and the epoxy drilled to protect the bulkhead core.



Here's how it looked in the end, with small teak caps inserted for each screw hole and sanded to a flush finish with 220 grit. Next step - Cetol varnish to match the rest of the wood trim on the boat!



Bonus shot: test-fitting the speakers and a new Axiom chartplotter. The only thing I'm not happy with is the bottom of the panel doesn't parallel the deck - when I mounted them I decided paralleling the companionway edges was visually more important. It definitely passes the 10' test, though, and even at 3' unless you're looking directly on, it's not noticeable.



Expect more pics after Cetol and instrument mounting!

Alex - I have to say that looks awesome. My only complaint is the look of the speakers. They just don't match the decor of everything else. Perhaps cover them with black anodized aluminum that has the small pin holes so it is acoustically transparent, or spray the silver with a black paint.

Painting the speakers black is a great idea. I might just do that.

It turns out they make a black model of the speaker. Acquired and ready for installation this weekend!

Project status: finished!

When I got to the boat this weekend, the boards looked amazing after several coats of Cetol:



I set to work mounting all the instruments. Per Bill's suggestion, I managed to acquire black speakers. Here the port side is all installed:



Wiring was a little challenging - the Axiom requires an adaptor cable to convert from N2K to SeatalkNG for the instrument network, which meant the cable length was fixed. I had to redesign things a bit, and move a network block closer to the plotter. Here's the back with all wires hooked up:



And underneath, where the new network block ended up:



Starboard side got a new i70s to mirror the wind readout on port (sometimes crew members have a pesky habit of sitting in front of my instruments!) as well as a p70s autopilot control, now moved below the i70s:



All in one frame, I think it came out looking really classy and nice:



I wrapped up work in time to slip the lines for a few minutes and go out to watch the sunset:



Now I have time for sailing - and more projects, of course!

That looks much better with the black speakers! You should fabricate boxes with that good looking teak to go behind the instruments for the full custom install look on the inside.

I like that you put a backing plate under the traveler. I did the same thing on Rhapsody. Add to your list for another time to shorten those screws. It is a pain as I believe they have t-heads that fit inside the traveler track and require that the traveler be removed.

I'm thinking about it, but I don't want to create something to bang your head into while sitting at the nav table underway. Perhaps a nice soft cushion to cover them up inside...

As for the screws, I've got an easy way to shorten them that doesn't require removal - a dremel with a cutting disc