Topic: Installed Humminbird on Stratos 201XL Evolution

[George]

This how I installed my unit.

Drilling thru Gel-Coat

Many of you may know this but I did not.

You must get through the gel-coat before drilling fiberglass.  The gel-coat is very brittle and will crack, break or flake.

To drill a hole for bolts, I start with small bits and work up to the size I need.  Start with drilling the hole backwards, it will wear through the gel-coat, if you start drilling there is a pretty good chance you will start flaking the gel-coat.  Do this all the way up to the size hole size needed.  Then chamfer the hole by running a larger bit backwards until the the chamfer is through the gel-coat.

Note if the screw or bolt is to big for the hole, there is a good chance that again it will flake a piece of gel-coat, I did this on my first screw hole to mount a transducer.  After that I was more careful.

George