Autohelm
I ran a dedicated circuit for the autohelm. I believe that I used a #10 or #12 gauge wire and you make the connection in the pedestal with the 3' off the autopilot head. Size it for the length of the run, and remember that that include both directions. A 16' two conductor wire needs to be sized for 32'. I also thought of the sink area for the flux gate compass, but I have refrigeration on the 290 and that would interfere with it at that location. The refrigeration unit is right ahead of the sink under the seat. The 290 is a tight fit if you start adding lots of goodies. We gave ourselves a little more space at the nav sation by making some modifications. Allows us to have the radar and Link 20 and still get into the desk top. Getting wires from the nav side up to the pedastal is tricky. Took us the better part of half a day to work out the route, and another few hours to get a good fish line run. Once that was done, the rest of the install went pretty smooth. Our wires run from the electrical panel at the nav station back through the head just under the counter-top. You will find a removable panel inside the cabinet in the head and we were able to reach around that rear bulkhead into an area above the liner over the rear stateroom. Take the access covers off the liner in the stateroom and you can fish a wire over to that back bulkhead of the head. It took a lot of effort, small hands, and a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the wire feed around the edge of the bulhead. Once done we replaced that with a heavy string line and used that to pull each set of wires through. I think there may also be a path back through the starboard lazerette and into the rear area where the tanks are, and then forward over the liner and into the pedastal. A little more wire, but maybe easier to install.
