Fuel Lines
Fixed, at least for now, a minor fuel leak using silicon tape. I used this tape on a leaking fuel line on my Defender and it has been working fine for about 4 years. Getting more serious about this probably means replacing all of the copper fuel lines to, perhaps, braided rubber. So I hope this lasts for awhile – perhaps as long as the motor.
VHF
I was on the radio with Victoria Coast Guard when towing that boat the other day. I kept pulling the VHF out of the dash (just a bit) when I pulled on the microphone to talk. I installed the flush mount ‘kit’ (which happened to be in-stock locally). Sorted.
MFD
The Maretron MFD arrived today. I got excited and dropped what I was doing to get to the boat. I was finally able to complete the upper dash and with it – the entire dash.
The MFD was a super easy install – one plug only – the NMEA2000. I used velcro to mount the tablet. The tablet gets its power from a USB receptacle hidden behind the upper dash panel.
There is room for a second tablet (as originally planned), another MFD, or a switch panel. I see no need for any more of that at the moment.
I had to work with some serious size constraints. The upper dash is super shallow which gradually reduces to zero at the top. Fortunately; the lower dash has just enough depth to accommodate the VHF and chartplotter.
I do not have the wireless radome (yet). This means that the chartplotter can connect to the tablet for mirroring. I will try this out in the coming days. This will add to the flexibility of this dash.
All of these new electronics will eventually get dated (while also not be period correct) – so hiding it is preferable.
US Flag
I purchased 2 small US flags some months ago. These are period correct for the boat (48 star flag as I recall). I had some velcro left over so I attached the flags to the outside aft of the boat to recognize that the boat was built in the US. I did the same thing with Merva but in that case it was a period correct Canadian ‘flag’ (well I used the ‘Red Ensign’ instead of the ‘Union Jack’).
