Need advice on pedestal wiring

[Joe500]

I have a radar display at the navigator's station that I would like to move to the cockpit/helm where I think it would be alot more useful. The problem is how to run the wiring. The starboard rail of the pedestal contains the throttle controls and is hard to disassemble. The port rail of the pedestal contains the thick wheelpilot cable, the chartplotter power cable, and chartplotter GPS cable There isn't much room left inside of it. How can I run the wiring so that it looks professional?

I am attaching a photo. You can see the two chartplotter cables coming out of the port rail and the little white base for the chartplotter. (The picture is old and shows the old wheelpilot--I have replaced it with a Simrad that has a thick cable going into the port rail)

I am thinking of getting a new steel tube and base though I'm not sure how to attach it to the current pedestal, or where exactly to place it. I'm also not yet sure where to position the radar display so that it would be usable from the helm but also not block the view.

The chartplotter and radar are old and not compatible, which is why I need both. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

[Sandero]

I suggest you get a small unit such as raymarine which can support a second monitor so that you don't have to deal with a thick radar cable. Personally I find instrument pods ugly and I would never have one because I don't drive my boat from the helm except on rare occasions when I am coming to or leaving a dock or mooring, or when the sailing is fabulous and I want to helm, or if the conditions are so bad the the autopilot is not tracking the boat well which is very rare and usually can be dealt with by sail trim/reefing.

On the other hand I have lots of data in my cockpit mounted on a "dash" over the companionway but under the dodger of course. Sitting on the bridgedeck in the companionway I can see the radar at the nav station. And I use a hand held garmin IQue3600 for a "plotter" in the cockpit which is more than I need - clear bluecharts zoom to any scale.

How about removeing one of the ports and mouting the unit there? You have an autiopilot so why would you hang out at the helm? Can you trim the genny fromm there?

Don't know how you sail so actually can't give advice other then telling you my solutions and as noted above it would be to have a compass only at the pedestal.

[Joe500]

Thanks for the reply. I feel like the radar should be near the helm for when there is heavy fog and you are using it to avoid other boats. I suppose with an autopilot you could be sitting anywhere in the cockpit and looking at the radar and that would work too. I'll think about it some more.