Holes in Cockpit Bulkhead, Butchered for Depthfinder? - Advi

[Lomcevak]

The previous owner made the holes as shown in the images.

The one on the starboard side was obviously made for a depth finder - which, by all appearances, is defunct.

But WHY would you make a hole on the port side, too?

So, I guess my question is, what would you do with this?

1) Should I try and repair it?
2) What would you expect to go in the port side?
3) I've always wanted to have speakers in the cockpit, anyway. Should I just get some suitable speakers for there? (I'm assuming there are speakers that should slide right in - do you agree?)
4) Any other ideas?


So, is there no way to upload the photos directly to this forum?

[Lomcevak]

[yukonbob]

Speakers, replacement sounder, compass or just an appropriately sized deck plate with a storage bag. Personally I'd go for the plates with large storage bags. They would hang down inside but they'd be great for keeping lines out of the weather when you're not around.

[Chinook]

There's usually a way to make lemonaid out of lemons, although in this case it may be tart lemonaid at best. Cockpit speakers would be one good idea. Maybe a nice compass would fit well in one of the holes. I cut a similar hole in my X, so I could gain access to a void where the wiring panel in the X is located. I wanted to flush mount my VHF radio, and I needed access to the inside area, in order to tighten up the mounting nuts. I cut the hole on the cockpit side, and then installed a cockpit VHF speaker there, so I can hear the radio when I'm running the boat. It works out very nicely. In your case it looks like the holes go straight through to the inside of the cabin. One possibility might be to construct some sort of storage cabinet on the inside, and then install those round screw in cover plates where the holes are. Even if you don't build the storage bins, the cover plates would make for a clean looking fill for the holes. You could reach in and wave at the crew down inside, or have the admiral pass up a nice hot cup of coffee to you while you're steering the boat in a driving rainstorm. And then, if you have fiberglassing skills, you could always patch and fill the holes and start from scratch, putting your own holes in things, where you really want them.
'

[gordl]

It was common in the era of the "D" and "S" to mount matching Standard Horizon depth and speed gauges or the gauges and a compass . All three required the holes you have. If you have two through hulls on the floor of the laz then you had the two gauges. If only one then you likely had the depth and a compass. My "S" has all three though the speed doesn't work anymore.