Mounting of Rudder Sensor for Raymarine S1 Autohelm

[Sailing Steve]

I have not had much success in locating information on the mounting of the rudder sensor for the Raymarine S1.  Can anyone point me to posts showing what others have done to mount the sensor on a C34 please?

I found the following website link in another post, but it doesn't appear to be a C34.

http://www.pc-land.com/simplelife/simple_life_dbase/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18&posts=2

Thanks.

[Ken Juul]

here are a couple of threads that might be of help.  Project submitted, might want to email the author for more info.

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3714.0.html

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3350.0.html

[Sailing Steve]

In response to an e-mail query as to how I made out:

I ended up gluing a 3" X 3" piece of 1/2" (I think that was the thickness) of wood to the "roof" above the forward "edge" of the rudder quadrant with 3M 5200, and mounted the rudder sensor, inverted, to that.  The thickness was just to give the rudder sensor arm clearance, to make it "Taller".  The added benefit is you don't have to worry about putting holes in your cockpit floor with the mounting screws.

To attach the rudder quadrant ball mount (the plastic body with the "gold" ball) I used a two part epoxy that is designed to work with aluminum.  I took two stainless bolts (1 1/2 & 2" in length I think they were - with the curve of the rudder quadrant, the ends of the bolts ended up being at equal height when placed - cosmetic factor only), epoxying the heads with a liberal depth/amount of epoxy, to the quadrant, with the bolts standing vertical.  I then spun a nut & lockwasher onto each bolt as a base for the ball mount to rest, followed by the ball mount, held in place with another nut and lockwasher combination.

This allowed me to adjust the height of the ball mount, so that the threaded rod /w female ball joints could be height aligned with the rudder sensor height.  I was able to keep all of the distances as recommended by Raymarine, as luck would have it.  That being said, have someone run the helm to the two extremes while you monitor the swing of the rudder sensor arm.  There is only about 1/8" of extra arm swing at the two extremes, and to have it misaligned will surely break the sensor/arm/ball mount epoxy base.

I found that the rudder sensor mounted best directly forward of the rudder post with its arm to the starboard side when centered, and the rudder quadrant ball mount, with its base aligned directly starboard of the rudder post.  This made for the easiest locations to work on, and align.

I mounted the computer behind the aft cabin wall, on a piece of plywood that I glued with 5200, to the exterior of the aft cabin hanging locker.  You can access these areas by removing the aft cabin walls.

The compass was mounted in a similar fashion in the main cabin hanging locker, aft of the nav table.  I used 5200 to glue a piece of plywood high on the wall at the extreme port side, aft interior wall of the locker.  The control head is mounted just aft of the engine control panel, and on our '90 Mk1 with walk-through transom, the bottom of the head overhangs a slight curve in the fibreglass wall by about 1/8 - 1/4", but it is not obvious to the casual viewer, plus the foam gasket still makes the seal.

REALLY CLEAN/PREPARE the surface of the quadrant, as my first attempt failed and the epoxy let go after a few trips.  My redo is working fine as I prepped the surface properly by steel brushing it extensively the second time around.  Same goes for cleaning/roughing the surface of the fibreglass where you glue any plywood mounts to.

I suggest that you drill pilot holes in the plywood bases, and then pre-thread all of the screws to alleviate the tough angles/tight quarters when you go to mount each device.

I hope my description is reasonably clear; a picture would be much better of course, but I didn't take any.