Electrics
At the time we bought the boat, the state of the electrics was not too good. The Victron batteries, 2 years old, had died because the boat had been hanging on the shore power pole 24/7. Also, we could not turn on a light in the cabin. Near the toilet there were open cables sticking out of the ceiling. Probably from a light bulb, but the old owner wasn’t sure either. In the engine room and behind the switch panel it was one big spaghetti. Instead of going on vacation (which was not possible in Corona time anyway) we took all the old cables out of the boat and in 5 weeks built a totally new system.
If you have absolutely no understanding of electricity or experience in this area, it is an exciting job to start. It is not the first time a boat has burned down due to errors in the electrical system. Fortunately, we had Pieter helping us calculate cable thickness and checking all our work. Pieter is an electrician and has also worked on fishing boats. In addition, he was able to tell us exactly where we could have our own designed switch panel punched!
How we proceeded I explain in the steps breakdown below:
Step 1: Making a plan
We took inventory of all the electrical appliances we have/wanted to have on the boat and their consumption. Then we drew on a map of the boat where all the power points should be. This slowly began to form an overall picture for us.
Step 1: Making a plan
Step 2: Finding out how the cables run through the boat
At the boatyard, we were advised to just cut all the cables, remove them from the boat and start all over. If we look back at it now, we might indeed do it this way next time. Only at the time we started this project, we really had no experience in this area. For that reason, we started tracking and labeling all the cables. A job that took a lot of time, but it gave us a good idea of how to route the cables throughout the boat in a neat way.
Step 3: Pulling Cable
Throughout the boat we replaced almost all of the cables with new tinned cable. By now we knew all the routes through the boat, so this was mostly a matter of making meters. In the end, we pulled about 200 meters of cable through the boat!
Step 4: Making a place for the control panel and fuses
If we were going to lay new cables, it was important to make a good central spot in the boat where everything could be fused and eventually out of to the control panel.
In the old situation there were minus and plus bars under the chart table. Not everything was properly covered and over the years they had become multiple systems alongside each other. To create order in this situation, we decided to redo the whole thing.
Pieter told us that on fishing boats he used to make a double wall with a large hatch. Behind this hatch he built the fuse boxes. We received pictures of this and recreated this.
After removing the old panel, we first glued a wooden plank against the polyester and laminated it in with fiberglass mats and epoxy. On this plank we mounted all our fuse boxes and minus and plus bars.
Step 5 Designing a new control panel
In several more modern boats we saw neatly arranged control panels. We wanted that too! Only after doing some searching on the Internet, we were shocked by the prices for these panels. So, we made one ourselves. First, we made a design on the computer. Then we looked for matching switches. You can order anything online, but we liked the round black ones. We had a company engrave and punch the panel on an aluminum plate. Finally, we wired it so that the lights of the buttons and the LEDs at the boat would work. In the photo below, it is ready to connect the pluses of the various devices.
Step 6: Connect all appliances to the fuse boxes.
We run all appliances in the boat through a fuse. Better one fuse too many than too few. Most of our on-board power is run through a 24-volt system. Below you see Martijn busy wiring the various fuse boxes. 3 black 24v boxes under each other and on the left another small box for the few devices we have on 12v.
Then we labeled all the cables with white heat shrink tubing and connected them to the switch panel and fuse boxes.
Finally connected the total system to the batteries for testing. From the batteries the cables first run past 3 main switches, 1 for the engine, 1 for the board voltage switch panel and 1 for the windlass. It was quite a relief when after connecting the batteries everything turned out to work. We have since tested it for 3 years and it works perfectly. We left space for any new devices, which turned out to be very convenient.
New situation:
