We wanted the added luxury of wind, depth and speed instruments on our 1998 H260. We chose a Raymarine ST60 package that was on sale from Sailnet at the time. When the mast was down for the winter I mounted the wind unit.

The main halyard block at the top has a nice cast fitting that I was able to drill and tap into for mounting. (You can also see I mounted a masthead light to the front of the mast and a VHF antenna to the front of the mast further down.)

I ran the cable that came with the wind unit down the mast inside the plastic tube built into the mast to keep the cables from slapping inside.

Masthead wind speed

At the base of the mast we installed some quick connect fittings for the wind unit, the masthead light and the VHF coax cable. We then ran those interior cables through the ceiling liner in the cabin.

That was tricky, because the tube provided by Hunter was crushed in one spot. We had to use a wallfish wire to find a clear way through the ceiling liner from the mast base to the galley area.

The little antenna sticking up is for our AM/FM stereo unit.

Deck connections

Under the aft berth there is a small, extra thick area below the center access hatch. For some reason our bilge pump and switch were mounted to that (allowing the potential for a LOT of bilge water to build up before the pump switched on). I relocated the pump and switch about 10 forward in a deeper part of the bilge.

Then we located the transducers diagonally apart from each other, as far away as possible (to minimize interference) on that extra thick area, and drilled out the 2 holes.

Speed and depth transducers

In retrospect I would have drilled two small pilot holes from the inside out, and then drilled the 2 holes from the outside in - because when the two holes broke through to the outer hull they were not completely flush and square with the hull surface. I had to use some extra, but not a lot extra, 5200 for sealing. I think that if I had drilled from the outside in I could have gotten them more flush. Maybe.

Hull transducers

Below the stove unit, at the base, we had to open a hole leading to the aft of the boat. That allowed us to run wires from the speed

Galley wiring 1



We opened up holes in the top side of the galley, back near the aft berth area, where we could run wires somewhat discretely.

Galley wiring 2

To mount the instruments in the cockpit we needed some way to fasten them in by accessing them through the cabin. Once we decided where we wanted them we sketched an access hole and then CAREFULLY cut it.

In retrospect, we would have moved both the instruments and the access hole a little lower, say 2 lower. The gap between the inside fiberglass wall in the cabin, and the outer fiberglass wall of the cockpit is very narrow near the top, which we didnt know. You might be able to see in the photo how the backs of the instruments are almost flush with the inside wall. Lowering the instruments a couple inches would have provided more clearance.

Instrument access inside

We found some almond countertop laminate at our local box store and epoxied it onto some 1/4 board. We then traced the access hole outline that we wanted onto paper, and transferred that to the laminate surface.

With a jigsaw we cut out the access hole cover and then sanded and filed the edges to get them smooth. Two small holes on each side fasten the cover into place. Its a very low-stress area, and the tiny screws have never come out, come loose, or been a problem.

Inside access cover

I mounted the instruments close together. In retrospect I would have put a little more space in between them, because putting the covers on them is a little tight (the covers interfere with each other). An extra 1/8 of clearance would have been perfect.

Weve had these in for 2 years with no problems, except the occasional fouling of the speed transducer and occasional spider webs on the wind unit. Pulling the speed transducer is easy, because the ST60 unit has a flapper gate that semi-closes when the instrument is pulled, minimizing the inflow of water. I now also spray the wind unit with spider killer in the spring, which seems to help, at least for a while.

Instruments