Wire me up!

What better to do with a winter Sunday afternoon than to wire up some breaker panels?  While this project is not entirely finished, it is much farther along after this morning's couch session!  One of the things that made this project take a while is that all of the connections have to be shrink wrapped to prevent corrosion.  The connectors I got are specifically for marine applications.  They not only are shrink wrap, but they also have a heat activated glue that seals the connections when the shrink wrap is sealed.

After sealing the wires, I had to connect the wires for the two breaker panels to a common point.  This makes hooking up the batteries easier.  It also allows for more expansion of the electrical system should I, or someone else down the road, want to add more features/tech gadgets.  By putting the whole setup on a hinged door, access to the whole system is easier as well.  This should make for a much more user friendly system.

Something else I am working on is a main sheet recovery system for the boat.  I am a pretty big guy at 6 foot tall and about 215 lbs.  While I am a competent sailor, accidents happen.  I am very much hoping to teach my girlfriend to sail this summer, and to be able to continue to go sailing together well into the future.  The recovery system idea is based on the idea that I knock myself out and go in the water.  There is no way that Jenny could pull me out of the water on her own.  With the main sheet block and tackle system set up at 6:1 ratio, hauling my ass out of the water would not be too difficult.  To accomplish this, I have a bronze quick release on the bottom of the block that could be released to allow the boom to be swung over the side and lowered to clip onto my PFD or have a sling already attached.  With the cam cleat attached to the block system, hauling on the line from deck will automatically feed the line through the cam cleat, and prevent me (or whatever is being hauled on deck) from falling back into the water if the hauler looses their grip on the line.  While I still have a few kinks to work out of the system, this is the first step towards that end goal.

Done Taking a Break(er)!

Now that the craziness of the holiday season is over, I have more time to get back to the boat.  I have started on the wiring.  I have been doing a lot of research, and now am in the process of actually doing.  The breaker panels have been set up to cover all of the functions that I thin the boat needs to have, or I want to have.  It took me some looking to figure out which functions have to get wired up together, but I think its ready to go.  I am looking forward to getting this all in the boat and out of the dining room.

 As you can see, the wiring is already a mess, and I have not even added my wiring to it yet.  I have a bus to add so that I can connect the power from the batteries to the two independent breaker panels.  Also, should I want to add other non-switched features, it give me the ability to add on without adding more hardware to the panel set up I have going currently.




I know some of you have been chomping at the bit for more updates, and they will come soon.  Hopefully fast and furious!