I have a Catalina 36 MKI, hull 319 from 1984. I just purchased new Raymarine electronics for it but I am stuck with the location and how to hook everything up correctly. I have purchased the following: RAYM AXIOM 12 CHARTPLOTTER 12", RAYM EV-100 p70S WHEEL PILOT, RAYM i70S VALUE INSTRUMENT PK all will be mounted on the pedestal replacing the old Data marine instruments and mounted in Navpods. I have found online diagrams of how to wire it up so that's not the issue, the issue I am having is how to run the wiring from the pedestal and instrument heads to the backbone and network components. Do I run long cables from the instruments in the pedestal to a place in the hull where all the components can be in a central location or do I run all cabling to the pedestal? So far I have only installed the transducers for the depth, speed and sonar..two transducers on either side of the hull. This is got me feeling stupid and it does not look that complicated from the wiring diagrams I have for this. Has anyone done this for my model boat? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Larry Robcke
MKl Tech Editor S/V L' Amante #319, 1984 C36
Sailing Long Island sound and the Hudson River
As an impression how the setup is on board our Siler. Even after some size-reducing the pictures are too largeso I added them in the pdf-document attached. An impression how our set-up is mounted in the Navpods, a look inside the navpod and a look underneath the cover showing the cabiling spaghetti. Hope this helps.
Durk Nijdam
S/V "SILER"
Catalina 36MKII - 2001 / hullnr. 2013
Stavoren - Holland
I did a complete electronics upgrade in 2012. Attached are my wiring diagrams and a picture of my NavPods. Not sure this will be that helpful as things have changed a lot. I would recommend using it as a conceptutal model for how things are wired. I would also recommend getting NavPods that are pre-cut for your electronics. This job took me 40-50 hours over about ten weekend days in the spring, so expect to take your time.
Ron St. Onge
C36-MKII Hull 1384
Ron St. Onge
1995 Catalina 36 MKII Hull 1384
Here is my wiring diagram for the rest of the system.
Ron St. Onge
C36 MKII Hull 1384
Ron St. Onge
1995 Catalina 36 MKII Hull 1384
FWIW, there are only so many cables that can fit into the tubes running up to the pedestal pod(s), particularly limited by the size of the connectors on the end. Our set-up does not seem to have as many instruments as yours, and we still ran into limits - even though I upgraded the pedestal gaurd a number of years back to 1.25" tubes. Plus there's only so much room inside the instrument pods... As a result, much of the interconnecting on our boat is located in the area under the cockpit floor, above the cover that shields the steering blocks/cables. Its a dry area that is nicely hidden away but still accessible.
The radar interface hub for our B&G chartplotter is located there, the multiplexer (that allows us to combine NMEA 0183 and Seatalk data from the chartplotter, autopilot, VHF, and speedwheel and feed it to the chartplotter, autopilot, and VHF) is there, and a few terminal strips, including for power supply. The pod itself holds only the B&G multifunction chartplotter/rader, an old-school Raymarine ST4000 autopilot head unit, the remote VHF unit, and a 12V socket. (The pictures indicate the initial installation; once I was sure everything was working I cut out a lot of the extra looped cable to neaten things up).
One last point: Its important to make sure that the cabling for the power supply to all this stuff is sufficient to avoid voltage drop -- when I first installed the current set-up I discovered that the autopilot or radar would sometimes cause the chartplotter to reboot, and I reran the wiring from the distribution panel (at the nav station) to the power bus with cables a couple of sizes larger.
Matthew Chachère
s/v ¡Que Chévere!
(Formerly 1985 C36 MKI #466 tall rig fin keel M25)
2006 Catalina Morgan 440 #30.
Homeported in eastern Long Island, NY
In regards to the number of cables inside the pedestal, the 90 degree turn from the vertical stainless tube into the back of the Navpod will be the tightest and determining area. Run the item with the largest connector first, and then run the transducer cables last. They are the thinnest and do not have connectors on them. Run pull string first and then use it for each cable. Also suggest get a short section of pipe the same diameter and do a mini mock up of just the 90° bend area.
Before I bought a new NAVpod pedestal guard with angle, I did a mock up out of PVC pipe and cardboard, to show what the new instruments were going to block- view wise. Made a huge difference in changing my mind of what guard to buy and where to cut it height wise. Hope this helps good luck
Tad Davis
Simpler Times
1989 C-36 MK I #1004
Redondo Beach, Calif.
I've attached the connectivity diagram for my boat (36MkII Hull 2060). The ITC-5 allows to conect older transducers (such as wind) to the NMEA backbone. The ITC-5 is mounted under the steering pedestal (aft cabin roof). The connector that combines the instruments is mounted in The Navpod that the axiom Pro is mounted in. The connector bottom left is mounted in the aft lazerette port side, nect to the autohelm controller. One additional connector is mounted behind the circuit breakers above the chart table and has spare sockets for expansion. It's a simple system once you get your head around it! Any unused blue sockets MUST be fitted with a blanking plug (for impedance matching perhaps...).