So tomorrow I official start my first steps in the Great Electronics Overhaul of 2010 (or the Great Furuno Debacle of 2010…depending on your perspective).
Running a cable for the new wind transducer.
Well, pulling the old cable OUT, that’s really the scary part. Putting the new cable in isn’t all that intimidating. In fact looking closely at how it’s all set up it shouldn’t be that tough (knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder…any other suggestions?).
What I find most disconcerting is that on a conceptual level when I start pulling stuff out I’ve reached a certain point of no return. Presently most of the stuff well, works, most of the time. It’s not great, it’s not reliable or state of the art – but the radar has gotten me home through the fog and the wind arrow mostly points where the wind feels like it’s coming from on my face.
Of course there’s a lot that’s not so good – like the complete failure of all the electronics – for a little while – when we were leaving Cuttyhunk to head to Provincetown last summer. Or the autpilot’s inability to steer in a straight line or steer period when the boat is under sail. Or the lack of a cockpit repeater for the Radar that supplies a coherent image, or boat speed, or a chart plotter I don’t have to hold in my hand. The list goes on.
But we used this stuff to get the boat around New England, and even back from Florida, over the last four years.
But once I start ripping stuff out – well then it no longer even works poorly. THEN I have to actually put the new stuff in and make it work.
Tomorrow’s task is pretty easy – pull the cable for the old ST80 wind transducer out of the mast and pull through the cable for the new one, then take off the old mounting bracket and stick on a new one. The mast is lying on saw horses and I can’t even test it since the mast is a few hundred feet from the boat. Not that there is anything installed on the boat that could supply power or talk to the thing anyway.
There really is only one task in this project the must be done before the boat goes in the water, and two more to do before the rig goes on. The rest is all internal – wiring runs and installing boxes and switches and routers and so forth. But I need to replace a through hull – again something I am loath to rip out because well, the boat floats the way it is now and there is no guarantee it still will once I’ve have at it.
But each little step boosts my confidence a bit in this whole project. And it’s a big one. Shortly I’ll be enumerating what was in that big “holy crap” pile of electronics I ordered last fall and what I’m going to do with it.
But for now I think I will pull my wire and do my best to see if there is any way I can get out of making a bigger hole in the bottom of my boat.
