CONTINUOUSWAVE

Hello All. I have recently purchased a 2005130 SPORT. The boat needed new control cables, which I was aware of as they were original, What I did not expect was the poor way that Bosotn Whaler installed the control box to the boat.

First of all, when I removed the control box the screws had no sealant whatsoever; and when the lower-most mounting screw was removed I had water draining from the screw hole for over five hours. Also. I did not see any WhalerBoard backing to support the control box.

Has anyone else encountered the same installation?

Are we discussing the binnacle, the housing for the shift and throttle lever? A photograph would be helpful.

Do the mounting screws penetrate into the foam in the hull? If so, there is no easy way a backing plate could be added under the fiberglass where it is mounted. If not, the water draining out is not a big problem. If you are concerned about a backing plate you could cut a U shaped piece of Starboard or perhaps aluminum and through bolt the binnacle. A backing plate and through bolts is probably excessive, but, if it provides some peace of mind, do it.

Neither of the binnacles on our two Boston Whalers are caulked. I've never removed them but I don't think they are through bolted. They've never presented a problem.

The top-mounting remote throttle and shift controls on my 1990 Boston Whaler REVENGE 22 Walk-Through Whaler Drive were mounted to the laminate of the helm console with simple wood screws. No sealant was used. There was no backing plate. The fasteners were not through-bolted. However, in c.1990 a boat typically left the factory without any engine controls installed, so I suspect that the controls on my boat were installed by the dealer that installed the engine. The laminate of the helm console is backed by rather thick plywood, and the plywood affords plenty of strength to support the engine controls. It also provided good purchase for the original wood screws holding the original controls.

In 2011 I re-fitted my boat with new engine remote controls. The new control housing had its own integral threaded mounting studs. I used washers and elastic stop nuts, provided with the new controls, to fasten the control mounting studs. I did not use any caulk. I did not use a backing plate.

The rather large hole cut into the helm console laminate to accommodate the original control installation was sealed with resin by the original installer. When I re-fitted new controls, I had to alter the position and shape of the hole. I don't recall sealing the wood grain. I probably should get back there and give the exposed wood end grain a coat of epoxy to seal it against ingress of water.

You can see several detailed illustrations with callouts showing the major components of the control re-fit in my REFERENCE section article about the installation of the new controls.

I did not find the method used to to mount the engine remote controls on my c.1990 boat to be anything unusual or a cause for special concern. From what I can tell from the narrative, the controls on the 2005 130 SPORT sound like they are mounted in a similar manner. I would not have any unusual concern about them.

Perhaps a more detailed explanation of what aspect of the mounting of the controls on the 2005 130 SPORT is cause for concern or an illustration of the problem would be helpful to understand better why those methods might be a source of disappointment to a Boston Whaler boat owner.