Practical projects

Great ideas and tips from PBO readers

- Stephen Carter, Hedley Ritchie & Andrew Grogono

Easier engine starting

Stephen Carter creates his own cockpit remote engine start system

The engine start and stop controls for my trusty Volvo MD2020, as with many boats, are mounted inside the cabin at the chart table. This is far from ideal, particularly when short-handed.

Not wanting to fork out for an additional panel or second key switch in the cockpit I decided instead to install a waterproof toggle switch in parallel with the existing ignition switch.

Being a diesel, any car type off/on/start switch wasn’t going to work as I need a glow plug pre-heater switch as well. Complicated switches like this are expensive.

However two separate switches fulfil the same function at a fraction of the cost – a simple on-off toggle switch (waterproof of course) and a spring loaded on-off-on switch, both cheaply available. The on-off is wired to energise the panel (‘ignition’ on) and the spring loaded switch is wired to give pre-heat one way and starter the other.