One of the things I really liked about my Maxcat was the 2nd station in the cockpit. Made it super easy to handle things when trolling and docking, especially when I was running the boat alone. The LaConner has its only helm station in the pilothouse and given that I'll also be doing a lot of towing and making up to dead-in-water boats with a side tie having a set of controls outside is something I really wanted to add to the boat.
Problem was, there was no good place on the backside of the house to put one because the doorway and the sliding door took up almost every sq inch of space on the aft bulkhead. The door isn't shown in this pic (not re-installed yet) but it sits to the left of the doorway when it is slid open.
So I'm scratching the old noggin' trying to come up with a place to add steering and throttle/shift and I notice that the door leaves about 4 inches of aft bulkhead showing over on the far left side when the door is open, just enough room to get some cables past it.
I started playing around with some cardboard to see if I could come up with a way to accomplish the goal and I mocked up a mini-helm that had a slot cut into the backside of it wide enough to let the door open all the way.
The great thing about aluminum is you can quickly build any kind of wild idea that pops into the brain.
So I started making hard parts. Just cut up 3/16 plate to size with my radial arm saw and did the cut-outs with a jig saw. Sanded up all the edges with a random orbit sander. Its just like working with really hard thin plywood.
Then you stick everything together with a hot melt glue gun (otherwise known as a mig welder). Notice how the cabin door can slide behind the helm? Sexy, huh? The little hole you see in the cabin bulkhead about halfway to the floor is where the control cables will feed thru to the forward helm station.
Just about done, I need to run the cables and hydraulic hose. I'm using the old helm pump and control that I removed from the main station inside to keep costs down. I'll get a new, smaller steering wheel so's I don't bash my knuckles on the back edge of the cabin.
Not bad work for a day on which I also had to meet with my tax accountant . . .
