Terrence from wilmington. This will be my first rewiring job of this magnitude; any advice would be well received. My plans for the eletronics is to go handheld as much as possible, to cut down on the amount of wiring.
This is the back of my galley, the last time I had to deal with this many connections was on I-40 interstate.
Galley from the side looking on. My galley is so tied up with wiring, I cannot move it to do other work.
Sorry this pic a little out of focus, but if you can make it out the wiring to the old panels are covered in cobwebs.
I agree, start over. Except "maybe" on the main cables that hook your power panel(s) to the battery if they are large enough and in good shape.
Before you do cut and rip out any old wires, be sure you don't need them to pull the new wire with. The mast head light on EE is a good example. It travels down under the port banquettes, then under the head compartment, then up the corner wall of the head and out to the deck. Would have been a real pain to run that one again without an existing wire for a pull.
Thanks to both of you for the input, I was heading in that direction myself, ripping it out and starting from scratch. I just needed confirmation from those who have been down this road before, again thank you.
I rewired like 95% of my boat from scratch. The previous owner had removed almost all of the OEM wiring and put in a new panel but had not connected it to anything. There were coils of new wires under the seats in storage ready to be used. So only in a few instances was original wiring used that was run through spaces I could not get to. It was MUCH easier then I expected to put everything back in. I soldered every connection and sealed it in place and then wrapped it in electrical tape.
The results were excellent all told I had maybe 4 hours in it and I have all new LED navigation lights too so my power draw is ridiculously low. I love it.
EE I can agree with that when I was rewiring masthead light 29 yr old wiring
Original with boat lost wire burned from a short (mouse chewed insul.) I got the new wire through but I think root canal would be better. Real hemmoroid.
HI Terrence
Give hand held VHF a lot of thought. Do you remember the delivery crew a few years back that were deivering a new Abemarle sport fisher? It was a brand new boat with no electronics. They had 2 hand helds and cell phones. Something happened below and the boat started taking on water fast. They were in an area around the junction of the Neuse river and Pamlico sound and there was no reception on the handhelds or cell phones. They didn't make it. The extra bother of wiring and running antenna cable will be worth it. Looks like ypu're off to a good start. I'll be watching your progress. Hopefully I'll be starting on mine soon.
Clair
Hi Clair
Nice looking Chrysler you got there, and by the looks of it you are light years ahead of me already. I have no thoughts of cutting back to the point that the safety of myself and crew is in question. As a novice to all things nautical it's a good feeling knowing that you and perhaps others on this board are interested in my progress. It may just keep me from really stepping in it, in the future.
Hey Terrence
Thanks for the compliment on the boat...but, it just looks good from a distance. Once on board, the work to be done is quite obvious. Thanks for posting the pics of bringing home your boat. From those and zooming in ,I was able to get a good idea of what I will do to convert a single axle 5500# trailer to a dual axle 7000#. I started to work on it Sunday. your pics and EE's dimensioned drawing should help emensly. Then I can get her up here to Pa in the barn and start work!
Clair
Looks like another 26! I redid my C-22 wiring also,, probably much easier than a 26, but learned enough to tackle the job in my project Catalina 27. I'm all for the safety side also. These boats like a good breeze and knowing your boat inside out helps.
I bought a book : "the 12 volt bible for boats" by Miner Brotherton. Starts with the basics and explains all the systems. Even if you don't have the original wiring diagram you could figure it out with this book... I'm sure there's others out there also, but it worked well for me.
Nice 26 there and I am glad that when I was sailing the Newport I picked up a vhf hand held it is waterproof and when I sail with friends they are amazed
at the use and operation and having the radio in the cockpit rather than running for the mic or having another cord to trip over. The main reason I am glad is when I got my 26 the radio was junk(did not work) after sitting so long. The hand held does not use boat battery so I have it for Navigation lights, Anchor light and cabin lights.
