Show us your transom.

Mark Halliday · 16 June 2008, 10:37

I have never been happy with the way the gear & throttle cables run on my boat. The used to do some fantasticly tight turns out of the deck and into the engine.
I want to improve things as part of the re-decking and I know that you lot can come up with a million and 1 ideas.

So, go on, show uz yer bum.

9D280 · 16 June 2008, 15:27

No pics to hand, so here's a description:

No underdeck trunking, so everything comes out the back corner of the console / jockey at floor level, starboard side. Steerig cable runs along the floor at around 30degrees to the fore/ aft line to the bottom of the frame brace, and curves up round the frame to the usual anchor on the engine bracket. Engine electrics (multicore & battery cables) are in a copex tiewrapped to the steering cable, as is (in separate copex) the fuel line from the front tank. Terminates in a short "loop" just before the engine clamp bracket to allow for the engine movements, Inline tank fuel connector just hangs.

A- frame cables (nav lights, antenna cables etc) in a separate copex running parallel to the engine one, but it continues along the floor under the toob & curves sharply up & inserts into the bottom of the frame tube to feed the cables into the bottom of the frame

Throttle / gear cables taped togehter to form a "loom" free form the rest of the looms and just sprawl themselves vaguely to starboard across the floor, loosely following the rest, but not able to be routed behind the frame and so they get in the way of everything if the engine is turned hard to port (stbd turn), otherwise they seem to lie out of harms way. Not ideal, but it seems to work.

If you want an illustration, let me know.

Mark Halliday · 16 June 2008, 16:25

Thanks. Nice description.
What I should have said is, my old route was under floor from the console. The control cables emerged from the under floor space through a "top hat" and boot to the engine. This bit was 3 feet at most and involved 2 x 135 degree bends in an "S" shape.
What I am looking for is a neat way of getting the cables from under the floor to the engine without the double hairpin.

martini · 16 June 2008, 18:45

I'm shortly going to make a stainless plate which will screw to my deck a foot or 2 forward of the engine. On to the plate I'm going to weld a bit of tube at a 60 degree angle which my rigging hose will attach to. This should allow my cables to exit the deck pointing pretty much straight at the motor. I'll post pics when I'm done and you'll see what I mean!

Erin · 16 June 2008, 19:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by martini

I'm shortly going to make a stainless plate which will screw to my deck a foot or 2 forward of the engine. On to the plate I'm going to weld a bit of tube at a 60 degree angle which my rigging hose will attach to. This should allow my cables to exit the deck pointing pretty much straight at the motor. I'll post pics when I'm done and you'll see what I mean!

I did something very similar but made mine out of fibreglass. Blue Peter stylee with a round margerine tub lid and a bottle as a mould. Worked very well as it kept the water out of the hull whereas the rubber witches hats leak when it rains.

Hightower · 16 June 2008, 19:20

Here you go Mark, hope this helps a bit.

The cable trunking goes down either side and though the bulkheads, comming though the deck in the corners of the console and into transom boxes either side of the transom. I haven't got a pic of the actual trunking, but was about 4" diameter.

bedajim · 16 June 2008, 20:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hightower

Here you go Mark, hope this helps a bit.

The cable trunking goes down either side and though the bulkheads, comming though the deck in the corners of the console and into transom boxes either side of the transom. I haven't got a pic of the actual trunking, but was about 4" diameter.

The trunking maybe medium duty water suction hose 3" id

Hightower · 16 June 2008, 20:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by bedajim

The trunking maybe medium duty water suction hose 3" id

Well not a bad guess as I was thinking O/D

MIRO Stewart · 16 June 2008, 20:40

All of my cables run under my deck and come out in the bilge buit and then into engine + A-frame

On the rescu boat, the fueltanks are kept under the console so those lines have to go astern too. Everything comes out on the rear starboard corner of the console and we had a but steel plate made up that everything runs under. The plate is made out of chequerplate and is in a sort of dog leg shape. It runs up the inside of the starboard toob and then cuts diagonally accross.

I will take some pics and post them up later in the week.

BruceB · 16 June 2008, 21:40

I have just finished mine off. Still to do last minute tidying but basically this is how it is set up.

jwalker · 16 June 2008, 22:39

Put yer cables above the deck. Tuck them under the tube a tie them off. Put the new deck down totally sealed with a bug in the well. No water inside the hull - ever. It may look a little less bling but you'll be safe in the knowledge that your hull will stay sound with no attention. Just look at all the stories on here where folk have water in hull problems - why risk it? Because it looks a bit prettier?

Richard B · 16 June 2008, 22:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwalker

Put yer cables above the deck. Tuck them under the tube a tie them off. Put the new deck down totally sealed with a bug in the well. No water inside the hull - ever. It may look a little less bling but you'll be safe in the knowledge that your hull will stay sound with no attention. Just look at all the stories on here where folk have water in hull problems - why risk it? Because it looks a bit prettier?

Fair point.

Leave 'em above deck. Stub yer toes. Trip over them. What's the worst that can happen? MoB and you die. Your choice.

BruceB · 16 June 2008, 23:02

Humbers get water in the hull anyway, that why they come with drain plugs

My trunk is a solid 4" pipe, water can't get into the hull anyway from it (just everywhere else)
Having had the on deck solution on a small RIB I am quite happy to be rid of it to clear the decks for dive kit and stop dmage from objects being dropped on the loom.

Hightower · 16 June 2008, 23:39

If I wanted to put a simple trunking system in a RIB then I would buy a length of drain pipe a couple of 90 or 45 deg elbows and some solvent glue. Stick it all together with generous "tails" sticking though the deck and glass it in. Fix deck in place. Trim pipework inside console and leaving as much tail sticking up as possible at the transom fix a Hyperlon elephants trunk. The Idea of the elephants trunk is to stop water that might build up in the transom area going into the hull.

Limey Linda · 17 June 2008, 00:03

I do not think that fibreglass will stick to PVC or ABS pipe very well. May be ok with Sikaflex????.
Afterthought: you could use a screw type bulkhead fitting to connect to the deck, that would work.

jwalker · 17 June 2008, 00:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceB

Humbers get water in the hull anyway, that why they come with drain plugs

Mine doesn't.

jwalker · 17 June 2008, 00:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard B

Leave 'em above deck. Stub yer toes. Trip over them. What's the worst that can happen? MoB and you die. Your choice.

I've never been overboard and I'm not dead yet.

It aint what you do, it's the way that you do it.

Hightower · 17 June 2008, 00:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Limey Linda

I do not think that fibreglass will stick to PVC or ABS pipe very well. May be ok with Sikaflex????.
Afterthought: you could use a screw type bulkhead fitting to connect to the deck, that would work.

I wasn't thinking as much of sticking it down, more holding it in place and stop it rattling around. The deck will do most of the fixing I recon.

Mark Halliday · 17 June 2008, 10:24

Thanks Guys.
Lots of good ideas and allready some controversy.

It is just the engine control cables that I am considering. The electrical stuff is easy. There is very little under deck space available.
Pic 1 below is from a post around 2 years ago and shows how things were.
Basically the bends were far too tight.
I was thinking of bringing the top hat forward to a similar position to BruceB s.
There is only 160mm at most. Green line Pic 2.
What do you think about the route in Pic 3, using the old top hat, boot and the nice new bit of trunking I just got from Hugh Jardon.

JW. Sound advice, but I like pretty

. I have found all the leaks and taken them to the tip. Most of the under deck water was getting in round the fuel pipe which used to exit in the well and was sealed with a bit of mastic. I am still working on a solution to that, but what ever happens, water will not get in that way in future.
Hopefull I will be able to use under deck routes without getting a hull full of water.

bedajim · 17 June 2008, 10:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Halliday

Most of the under deck water was getting in round the fuel pipe which used to exit in the well and was sealed with a bit of mastic. I am still working on a solution to that, but what ever happens, water will not get in that way in future.
Hopefull I will be able to use under deck routes without getting a hull full of water.

Smaller diameter hoses one each side if you use the suction hose you can prep it and glass it in.

For the fuel connection hydraulic bulkhead fittings in stainless + doughty seals with a couple of large washers glassed on to either side of the bulk head to give them something to lock up to. Or just a stainless socket welded to a plate and glassed in