Dougcole
Guru
You mentioned cruising the Bahamas. Most of the time you will be on a bank that is 15 to 20 feet deep. There are numerous sandbars and coral heads. Height from the flybridge greatly improves visibility. You can drop the curtain when it rains and stay up there. Also the enclosure keeps things cleaner and less salt washed when cruising so electronics and instruments stay less exposed to the elements.
I've found our strataglass to be difficult to keep up, after 5 years ours is already getting hard to see through despite my babying it and following the manufacturer's instructions to the letter using their proprietary cleaning products.
That said, I wouldn't be without an enclosure for the reasons others have stated. I think I've used my lower helm for less than 4 hours in the 8 years we have owned the boat. When I redid our electronics 2 years ago I seriously considered not putting any electronics down there at all. In the end I installed a very basic 5" sounder/gps combo which I bring home and use on my flats boat when not using the big boat.
Our canvas guy said it would be very difficult to put in a "rigid" front panel (ez2cy or similar) that could open on our boat because we have a soft bimini. I think he feels like there would be nothing to attach it to to hold it open since it can't be rolled. Any thoughts on that?
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