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I am the happy owner of a 2008 Conquest 235. I am in the process of installing two GO9 XSE MFD, 3G radar, vesselview link and two new transducers. One of the GO9 XSE will be dedicated to vesselview and the other for radar, chartplotter and all of the sonar functions. Additionally, I will be installing a Simrad RS35 and connecting this to the GO9 XSE via N2K.
Once the existing electronics are removed the dashboard will have multiple holes and repairing the existing fiberglass is an option but not my first choice. The dashboard has a radius and while the GO9 XSE will fit in both the port and starboard dash areas this mounting option is less than ideal for my needs.
Have any of you modified the radius dash to a flat dashboard?
I have considered using some type of plastic like starboard or acrylic, sheet metal or filling in the radius area with some type of filler then mounting to that. The filled area could then be cover with a 3M wrap material or something else.
I would appreciate any guidance, comments or your own $ 0.02's.
I am not quite sure of what you are asking. You said the units would "fit in the dash but not the best option" so......are you trying to reconstruct the dash board and mount the units elsewhere? Mount the units in the dash to look pretty? The simplest way to fill the voids is leave the existing accessories/switches in the dash disconnected in the dash as "dummy switches". I might do that. To fill the void from screens (large void) maybe make a starboard template covering the opening nicely. A picture and full description would help.
I am curious as well. Maybe you could post a picture as the dashboard of all the 235 conquests I have seen have flat vertical dashboard face panels that can be covered with black starboard to cover up holes and mount the newer MFD's. I know the top or horizontal portion of the dash is not flat but rounded, but I am unsure that this would be an issue unless you are trying to mount your suite of other electronics on top of the dash. The amount of stuff you are trying to fit in that general area is a bit of overkill on a 23 foot boat unless you have a T Top to accept some of the electronics overflow. I understand that in New Jersey you have a bit of weather and fog just as we do here on the Great Lakes, however, I have not even 2/3 of what you are trying to put on a 23 foot boat, on my 36 foot Silverton Sedan Bridge.
I have attached a picture of my current helm. As you can see I already have all of the electronics that I previously elaborated on except for the 3G radar. Everything is 2008 technology with marginal display. What is there now is a Garmin 545S, Vesselview with DTS and an Icom VHF.
The two GO9 XSE will give me superior display. The GO9 XSE for the Vesselview will give me a larger display and able to have multiple windows open. The other GO9 XSE will give me enhanced sonar, chartography and radar.
My boat is docked in Cape May Harbor. About half of my fishing is at night. I fish all of the inshore structure like jetties, the reefs that are 6 to 15 miles out and the complete Delaware Bay.
All of what you see will be replaced or improved.
I determined now that the two GO9 XSE will fit in the starboard and port portions of the dash. The Simrad RS35 VHF will mount where the Vesselview display is now. Ordered 3/8" thick black starboard that will fill in the opening and give me a good surface to mount the Simrad RS35 VHF. I will router the edges of the patch and hopefully it will look OEM.
