We ordered our Simrad equipment a while back, and some if has been delayed due to Covid and other circumstances. Several weeks ago we did the Simrad VHF radio install, and this week the Simrad NSS16 evo3S 16 inch Multifunction Fish Finder and Chartplotter arrived.

When we purchased the boat, the configuration looked like this on the right (starboard) dashboard panel.

The dept finder did function, but I believe that it was the original 24 year old depth finder that was factory installed with the boat. The Northstar unit to the right was rubbish, when it was turned on, it would power cycle after just a few moments, rendering it completely worthless.

First we had to pull out the original and adjust the hole for the new unit to fit. Two adjustments that we ran into…

First the hole behind the dashboard panel was not large enough for the new NSS unit. We had to cut about 1/2 inch off the top and the bottom to make the whole bigger.

Second the metal dash panel had holes in the wrong spot which prevented us from being able to us it. Instead we grabbed a 1/4 inch piece of starboard, and covered it with wood grain vinyl, to give the dash the look of a 2 year newer boat.

With the heat gun we were able to shrink the vinyl to make it appear that it belonged that way.

We still need to hook up the new unit on the flybridge when it arrives, along with the radar when it arrives, the transducer, and networking between all of these units.

Once we remove the old radar, I will adjust the panel on the left side of the dashboard to match the wood grain on the right, and at some point we will add the wood grain to the center dashboard panel.