No Turning Back Now!

Time to switch away from structural items and move onto arguably the biggest job for this project: the electrical system.  From my testing when I bought the boat, most of it is intact and mostly functional, but there's no doubt that it's a rats nest of madness that I can't rely on fully because I don't understand it.  The Alberg 35 had an even older and sketchier electrical system but it was an entirely different animal.  It literally had only 3 circuits; the engine, running lights, and cabin lights.  Each circuit consisted of old, brittle wires that were always in danger of giving up the ghost, but it was dead simple and I could understand it just by taking a look behind the distribution panel.  

Velorum is a much more complex beast and even though the electrical system seems mostly functional, the amount of wiring in this almost 40 year old boat is daunting.  To tackle the problem, I started by tracing every single wire as best I could.  I set my multimeter on the continuity buzzer setting and connected a 30 foot wire to each breaker and walked around the boat to see what went where.  Digging around in the recesses of the boat quickly led me to the conclusion that there was quite a bit of dodgy wiring throughout.  Probably quick and dirty additions that previous owners had done over the years that may have made sense to them, but didn't hold up in the long run.  

After a few hours of testing, re-testing, and scratching my head, I realized that I needed to re-wire the entire boat with one exception: the cabin lights.  Clearly these had been done at the factory before the deck and headliner were glued together because most of the wiring runs between the two and replacing it would be a terrible (maybe impossible job).  Fortunately, all of the cabin lights work and are divided into port and starboard circuits, so that's something I can live with. 

For the rest of the wiring, it was time to start ripping it out, but before I did, I made a map of all the circuits currently in the boat and how I would run new wire to replace it.   I found a free electrical wiring diagramming tool and layed out the wiring paths to each 'appliance'.  It should serve as a good reference for troubleshooting down the line.

Once completed, I took a deep breath and started dismantling the system.  Some of the factory wiring was pretty decent and I could have probably saved it, but since I already purchased several hundred feet of marine grade tinned duplex wiring in 10, 14, and 16 awg, it was time to go.  I pulled the old distribution panel (will be replacing with a Blue Sea 20 position panel #8379) and started yanking wire.  There were at least 5 dead circuits that clearly hadn't been used in years and when I found them, I realized I had made a good choice by replacing everything. By the end of the first session, I had the cockpit pretty well filled up with old wire.  It took me a few sessions to track down and remove everything, but it felt good to have it done.

The navigation instruments introduced a bit more anxiety, but because I'm replacing those with new equipment (except maybe the windvane), I feel good about this choice as well.  The mass of wiring from just the Raymarine chartplotter and old tiny NMEA 0183 wires connected to everything was so confusing. I'll be much happier with the Garmin system replacement (7607xsv chartplotter).  

Now that I had a clean slate (except for cabin lighting), it was time to re-design the way the wires are distributed.  Unlike systems of old, where the wiring goes directly to the distribution panel, I opted for the more modern approach where the wires from each appliance terminate on a series of terminal blocks (positive side) and a bus bar (negative side) located behind the main distribution panel. Installing these allows for much easier troubleshooting, and the individual breakers on distribution panel connect to each terminal block. If some wiring (nav lights, instrumentation) needs to share a breaker, a jumper can be added to the terminal block so the breaker can be shared.  

I also added an unswitched fused circuit block to control appliances like bilge pumps that are essentially connected directly to the battery so they can't be turned off.  I went through several layout iterations, but finally ended up using an epoxy coated piece of plywood glued to the hull and painted white. On it I mounted all the necessary components needed, and will be the foundation of the new electrical system.  Next up, I'll start running new wire from this panel to all the appliances.