A backup camera is a nice feature to have on a boat, particularly when the boat 1) is larger than 40′ and 2) doesn’t have a clean line of sight between the pilothouse and the rear of the boat. Our Bayliner came with one, but with one odd quirk: the camera image came across the screen… in reverse! I didn’t know this when we bought the boat, but it became very evident the first time we took the boat out. Every time a boat was coming up the port-side, it looked like it was coming up the starboard-side on the camera!

The screen at the helm has a “REV” button, which I assumed meant “reverse.” I wasn’t wrong… but in this case, “reverse” meant flipping the image top to bottom. Obviously, that wasn’t helpful. So digging around behind the screen housing became an afternoon project.

Access to the control board was much easier than I assumed it would be. The screen housing could simply be pulled forward from the dash, giving me access to all the wiring behind it. And if you take a closer look…

Under the words is a switch, and flipping the switch properly mirrored the image on the screen, making it much more functional! That was probably the easiest fix I’ll have for a while!

Now, it looks like the system can accept inputs from two additional cameras. I think I’ll install a camera down in the engine room, and another one… hm. I have no idea where I’d put another one. Maybe on the flybridge?