Keith Calton describes how he designed and built a new, larger
instrument panel for his Macwester Wight using glassfi bre
T
his all began following a trip
to France. We were leaving
Cherbourg in bright sunshine
then half an hour later we hit
dense fog which stayed with us for the
remainder of the trip.
My partner at the time decided that we
needed to have radar onboard so a
Raymarine radar/plotter found its way
under our Christmas tree. Unfortunately
Santa only does delivery. My problem was
not with the wiring and cable routing,
although that was hard enough, but where
to install the screen. The instrument panel
on board my Macwester Wight was far too
small so for the fi rst few seasons the
display was mounted in its bracket on top
of the original console. This entailed
mounting and connecting it for each
outing, or else it sat unused, which kind of
defeated the object.
In the meantime, Santa continued todeliver. With a fi shfi nder and engine hour
meter vying for space it all became
increasingly untidy and insecure and cried
out for a solution.
I decided that a whole new instrument
console would be the best answer, to be
fi tted in the position of the original one on
the port side which was where the existing
wiring was already routed.
Fabricating a new instrument panel also
gave me the opportunity to include other
possible and desirable features. It soon
became obvious that the depth of the chart
plotter/radar display made siting it higher a
priority so it had to overlap the bulkhead/
coaming. So like many engineering
decisions, I thought if you can’t hide it,
make it a feature! Therefore rather than
raise an unsightly bump over the deck I
decided to carry the new console further
under the wheelhouse and make a tray for
pencils, charts and cups of tea.New instrument
console is bigger
and more practical
than the old one
(inset above)72 Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.ukMake a GRP console
PRACTICAL
ABOUT THE AUTHORBefore
In 1966 Keith Calton
joined the Cambridge
University
Spitzbergen
expedition dodging
icebergs as a boat
mechanic. From 1969
to 1973 he was
involved with
glassfi bre fabrication making and
developing 14ft (4.3m) and 17ft (5.2m)
Dejon motor boats. There was a change
of career from 1973 to 2013 when he
was involved with manufacturing
glassfi bre cases for musical
instruments. He is now developing an
8ft (2.4m) stacking dinghy, which he will
be displaying at this year’s Beaulieu
Boat Jumble (see preview p42).