Putting it all together...

I'm getting my wires ready to be hooked up. You have to double-crimp each connector. Fun!







Here we have the wires all ready to be hooked up to the AC and DC electrical panels. You'll notice two little pieces of wood I had to mount in the middle. I cut the mounting space a little too big and didn't have room to drill screw-holes for mounting. It took an hour just to make it work.




Connecting the AC wires to the distribution panel. This will provide juice to my AC outlets, battery charger, and air conditioner. I'll only be able to use those while connected to shore power. Of course, the boat will rely soley on the batteries while underway.

Do You Know a Good Electrical Engineer?...

I had to draw a diagram of how I want the new battery system to work. Thank God I drew pictures of the old setup, so I would remember how NOT to set it up. The old batteries were stowed in an area right next to the fuel tank, and they weren't even secured. I'm not an electrical engineer or anything, but I think that might be bad.

Here's all the nice new shiny parts that I just spent a small fortune on. Battery cables cost over 4 dollars a foot, Ouch!!! But if you're gonna replace one part of the system, might as well replace them all. It only takes one badly corroded connection to put a kink in the whole shebang.

Here are my new batteries, snug in their new home. The battery charger is mounted on the left. Note the holes I drilled in a neat row. Coming soon: THE HOOKUP.

Gettin It Done...

Creating order from chaos!!











So here's what the back of the electrical panel looked like. I had to cut all those wires and label what each one was. Sometimes I had to play "follow the wire." Of course I had to splice more wire to make each lead fit through my new electrical panel in front of the desk.








Here is my desk, with the leads sticking out of the space where my electrical panel will go. I put in a GFI (Ground Fault Interrupt) as the first outlet so that the rest of my outlets will be protected. There is also a new space for my stereo.

Making modifications

This is where I'm gonna put my navigation station. That's the nautical word for "desk." The rectangular outline is where I'll mount the desktop, and the cutout space is for the new electrical panels.








This is the desk I made, complete with a lid that lifts up. Isn't that fancy!!











I turned my apartment into a workshop so I could cut some lumber and build my new desktop. How I love the smell of sawdust in the morning!!!

Fun with wires

I invented a new game: "Follow the wire." I found a loose wire that was laying in the bilge.
I followed it under the galley sink, up the port side and what do you know, it was connected to the power outlet!! So now my boat has one less wire taking up that precious bilge space. -sigh-

What a mess!

This is what the interior of the boat looks like right now. There are assorted tools, hatches, wires, lumber, and other unknown stuff strewn around the cabin while I am working. It's difficult to make any headway because as soon as you get something accomplished you find two more things that need to be done...

But that's what having a boat is all about.