Entertainment in my Mitchell 28 used to be a portable battery-powered radio, but it didn’t really work very well and there was no way of playing music from my smartphone. I thought of fitting a standard car radio which might have solved some of these problems, but a major function would be missing: my wife, Máire’s, ability to control the volume and balance.

The reason these are important is that her hearing is better than mine so she requires a lower volume, which I then can’t hear. The balance control enables this to be overcome with more volume on my side of the boat.

A radio with NMEA 2000 compatibility solves these problems. When sailing, Máire uses a tablet linked to the chartplotter that lets her change screens and make adjustments (except for the autopilot). Thus, she can call up the radio screen and make whatever adjustments she needs without leaving her seat.

The BB10 Black Box, control head, hole saw, speakers, supplied speaker wire, additional wire from Amazon, and four MDF speaker enclosures. Credit: Gilbert Park

I chose a Fusion BB10 Black Box radio. This has a small controller (with no screen) that I fitted at the helm and is perfectly adequate for switching the unit on and off and changing the volume. The black box I fitted out of the way in an electronics cupboard.

The NMEA 2000 connection is very straightforward and gave me the option on my chartplotter of a small screen on the left-hand side of the main screen or a whole screen display. The ability to connect a tablet or phone by Bluetooth not only enables me to control the output remotely, it also allows me to play music or audiobooks through the audio system.

Fitting the Fusion BB10 Black Box

The Fusion BB10 Black Box was straightforward to install. I had to drill a hole at the helm for the control head, then mount the black box and start connecting it up to power the NMEA backbone and the aerial.

The Black Box in the electronics space before wires are connected. Credit: Gilbert Park

Fortunately, the boat already had a TV aerial installed that had an amplifier with a radio port. It was just a matter of running a coaxial cable from this port to the radio and connecting the correct plugs at each end.

The only difficult part of the installation was the speakers. I don’t like cutting large holes in the boat, and in any case, I couldn’t find a suitable space that was deep enough for the speakers to fit. So I decided to make two speaker enclosures.

The hole saw coming through the helm panel. Missed the other wires! Credit: Gilbert Park

Having carefully measured the speakers I found some MDF speaker enclosures. They were too shallow, so I bought two for each speaker and stuck them together. They were just a tiny bit too small, but chiselling out a notch for the speaker connections was sufficient for the speakers to fit without any overlap. A few coats of stain made them look smarter.

A speaker installed at a junction of the roof lining. Long screws go right through to a crossmember of the coachroof. Credit: Gilbert Park

Coming out of the black box there are speaker wires for two sets of speakers– this would allow me to fit speakers in the cockpit at a later date should I wish. There is also a connection for an optional DAB receiver.

I ran speaker wires up to the ceiling and out through a join. Excess wire was fitted inside the speaker enclosures, which were then screwed to the coachroof crossbeam.

Chartplotter screen displaying audio. When mirrored with the Raymarine app this is what’s also seen on a tablet or phone. Credit: Gilbert Park

After that it was just a case of selecting the audio window in the chartplotter, tuning in the radio and saving them as presets, then connecting the Bluetooth from my phone to the radio and testing out the app I’d downloaded to play some music. It worked without a problem.

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