matt_unique
New member
Well it's officially the end of my third season with Napoleon. This was the best season yet: over 1100 nautical miles on the GPS and 100 engine hours added this season. I discovered some new (to me) dive sites which were great.
I took the last few days off from work to do all the winterization in one fell swoop. Tomorrow I have someone coming over to shrink wrap it.
One interesting lesson learned this season. The light bar option available on Seaview mounts may not be the ideal option. Returning from Woods Hole this year the top of the mount that holds the GPS receiver snapped off. The seas were not crazy. I believe it was the sun (over the course of three years) degrading the strength of the small plastic piece at the top of the pole that screws into the GPS receiver. Everything else in this mount system is aluminum except for the small plastic piece up top.
Seaview was very kind to send me a free replacement for the top of the pole but I was unable to remove the existing pole from the radar mount. I removed the screw that operates the aluminum rocker inside the pole holding it in place but the 5200 I used to waterproof everything worked too well. With both feet on the radar mount I could not get the pole to budge. I used a heat gun until the aluminum was too hot to touch and still nothing. I also could not snake the GPS cable through the mount and pole. (90 corner makes this impossible anyway). So...unless I wanted to use duct tape to hold the GPS receiver to the top of this fine vessel forever I decided it was time to snip. It was a painful $300 snip but it had to be done. I used the trusty Dremel tool to cut the pole at the base and then ground it smooth. I will use a rubber cork and/or 5200 to seal up the hole left by the light bar.
In the Spring I will mount a new GPS receiver directly to the roof. I will use a stainless steel mount.
I took the last few days off from work to do all the winterization in one fell swoop. Tomorrow I have someone coming over to shrink wrap it.
One interesting lesson learned this season. The light bar option available on Seaview mounts may not be the ideal option. Returning from Woods Hole this year the top of the mount that holds the GPS receiver snapped off. The seas were not crazy. I believe it was the sun (over the course of three years) degrading the strength of the small plastic piece at the top of the pole that screws into the GPS receiver. Everything else in this mount system is aluminum except for the small plastic piece up top.
Seaview was very kind to send me a free replacement for the top of the pole but I was unable to remove the existing pole from the radar mount. I removed the screw that operates the aluminum rocker inside the pole holding it in place but the 5200 I used to waterproof everything worked too well. With both feet on the radar mount I could not get the pole to budge. I used a heat gun until the aluminum was too hot to touch and still nothing. I also could not snake the GPS cable through the mount and pole. (90 corner makes this impossible anyway). So...unless I wanted to use duct tape to hold the GPS receiver to the top of this fine vessel forever I decided it was time to snip. It was a painful $300 snip but it had to be done. I used the trusty Dremel tool to cut the pole at the base and then ground it smooth. I will use a rubber cork and/or 5200 to seal up the hole left by the light bar.
In the Spring I will mount a new GPS receiver directly to the roof. I will use a stainless steel mount.