Maximizing Helm Space

Whether your goal is saving money, maximizing limited space on your console or just streamlining the suite at your helm to simplify safety and navigation, it pays to develop a strategy when choosing and configuring your on-board electronics display. No one knows this better than the builders and riggers who are tasked with fitting a full array of electronics into a compact dashboard.

To gain some insights into making maximum use of available space at the helm, I sought the advice of some professionals who deal with this issue every day and asked them to share some of their favorite equipment choices.

Wylie Nagler has winning pedigrees in both boat racing and tournament fishing. His company, Yellowfin Yachts, specializes in high-performance center-console fishing boats. But even on his flagship 39-footer, the layout of the center console still dictates a relatively compact helm, which means available real estate must be used judiciously to accommodate the full suite of electronics serious fishermen require.

Room for a View
While the choice of electronics is ultimately the customer's decision, Nagler says he often aids in the process. Rather than go with a single line, he draws from a broad range of products by Garmin, Raymarine, Furuno and Simrad. "We pretty much install a 25 percent split among the major electronics suppliers," Nagler says.

The goal is to maximize the viewing area, Nagler says, which means installing the largest screen that will fit at the helm. The more functions a single screen can handle, the more options become available. When an autopilot is on the skipper's list, Nagler is quick to take advantage of Simrad's integrated model. "The great thing about the new Simrad NSE is the autopilot is integrated, so you don't have to find a place to mount the control head," he says. "That leaves more room for a bigger screen. Nobody else does it like this."

If cruising is a priority, Nagler often recommends customers opt for Garmin products for their ease of use. "In travel and cruising, GPS is the critical function," he says, "and this is where Garmin comes into play. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to start pushing buttons and making it work. You just start using it."

Pare and Pair
Brent Floyd of Atlantic Marine in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, is accustomed to balancing boaters' needs with their wallets to maximize the utility of an electronics suite.

"My idea of the ultimate setup," Floyd says, "is a Garmin 5200 or 700 series plotter and a Furuno FCV585 sounder. That gives you a commercial-grade color sounder that is easy to use. Garmin has done an awesome job with the 740. It's a reasonable-size screen ? 7 inches wide ? that gives you capabilities for GPS sounder and radar if you want it at a reasonable price. That gives you everything you need to cruise or fish." Floyd says mounting smaller instruments in an overhead electronics box is an effective way to maximize space. "In the past, we have used 10- or 12-inch main displays down low at the helm, then smaller 4-inch displays overhead, like the Furuno RD-30 remote display [navigational data organizer showing depth and temperature] or the Furuno GP33, a backup GPS plotter," he says. With the smaller instruments and backups in the overhead, the data is visible even when you are not at the helm, he says, and it doesn't use up any valuable real estate on the dashboard.

"You can be in the cockpit and look up and see the depth and the temperature or the GPS and your track," Floyd says. "Often when setting up coastwise, short-range cruisers, the customer wants simplicity. So we just put in an RD-30 for digital depth and temperature for the skipper who is not going offshore but is just cruising around the waterways and sneaking up creeks. For that boater, the small displays are killer." Floyd surprisingly downplays VHF. "For a lot of smaller boats, VHF is becoming a thing of the past," he says. "In our area, guys cruising around, going two miles out for Spanish mackerel or fishing around the jetties, the cell phone is all you need. You can be 10 miles offshore and still be in range."

Lose the Gauges
Just north of Seattle where the Strait of Juan de Fuca meets Puget Sound, outfitting a boat requires gear that meets the region's often-demanding conditions. For instance, radar might be considered a luxury in Miami, but it is all but essential in the Pacific Northwest. Bryan Hennesy of Anacortes Marine Electronics in Anacortes, Washington, takes helm space seriously. "What is especially important when space at the helm is an issue is to prioritize your needs based on the type of boating you do," Hennesy says. His primary tool in addressing space issues is fully utilizing multifunction displays, which allow the overlap of purpose.

Where helm space is constrained, single-purpose electronics are limited to higher-end radars and commercial-grade fish finders. "We see specialization in the higher end, like Navico and Furuno," he says. But for most recreational cruising, he feels multifunction display screens are the answer.

"Radar overlay is important, as it allows you to have radar on the same screen as the chart plotter, which is important for keeping space to a minimum," Hennessy says. He also stresses the usefulness of smaller versions of dedicated instruments and incorporating multifunction displays whenever possible. "Data boxes allow you to display digital depth if you don't want to make the room on your helm," he says. "We would push customers toward a multifunction display, probably a 12-inch display, and then rely on an NMEA 2000 interface to eliminate engine gauges. You can put some of those engine gauges right on the display screen."