1/10/07 Was a bad day on our dock......

[SVDistantStar]

Yesterday my neighbor's boat had a pretty bad cabin fire. The boat was a late 70's Hunter 30. Didnt burn the boat up, but messed up the cabin pretty bad. The cause was bad eletrical wireing. From what it looks like, the wires caught fire and caused a flash fire that burnt up the head liner, but really didnt burn up the rest of the boat. Most of her clothing was smoke damaged, and they might be able to save it. Her dad has a Pearson 30 that she might move on soon.

Now this got me thinking about my boat and its wireing. Most of it is factory, and in a major mess. The wireing was in the middle of my project list, but just got moved to the top. Im thinking about installing the tubes that are charged with a fire suppresion agent along with all of my main wire runs. This has got me really worried since most of my wireing is 35 years old and has been underwater once.

[sailingdog]

Ouch. The pearson sounds like a step up... Re-wiring your boat should be a priority, especially if the wiring has been submerged once. Also, unless you're the only owner your boat has ever known, there's a pretty good chance that the previous owner (at least one of them) did something remarkably stupid with the wiring.

[Faster]

A sad day for your neighbour for sure. And a wake up call for everyone. I think you are right to be concerned about your wiring, mainly because as you say it has been submerged at one point, corrosion could be bubbling away unseen over time.

Re wiring boats is always a challenge and even factory wiring is often unnecessarily messy and unorganized. Setting it right is often difficult too because of access issues on the assembled boat.

Best of luck.

[SVDistantStar]

Mine is a horrid mess. Theres bundles of wires going places where theres nothing eletrical. My boat was a bargin bin boat with tons of issues that ive slowly been sorting out. The wireing was in the middle of the list due to cost and time to do it. Im a full time liveaboard and money is tight. Ive figured it will take at least $400 to the most of it the way i want it. Most of the wires in my boat are in fairly easy to access, but there are some hard parts. The major area that will have alot of wires is the nav station, but thats pretty close to where the panel will be. Cabin lights/fans are going to be run with 14-2 Ancor wire. Pumps will be 10-2 and the 120v system will be as simple as possible with the only outlets in the galley. 97% of our boat is 12v DC now, with very few 120v AC stuff. All our lights are 12v, as is our AC/DC TV/DVD combo (got to love the $120 walmart display unit). The only things 120v AC is the fridge(dorm style) Charger/converter, hot water heater and space heaters.

[PBzeer]

I just got done pulling at least 200 feet, if not more, wiring off of my boat. My shorepower receptacle shorted out and as long as that had to be replaced, I redid the entire AC wiring (which was a mess and didn't meet ABYC standards). Wasn't cheap, and it wasn't fun, but at least I know it's right. I'm now starting on the DC wiring (which is where all the old wiring came out from). All new distribution panels for both, though the DC wiring is being done in stages from the panel out.

[SVDistantStar]

Ive got a nice AC/DC panel w/meters that i salvaged off another boat that i plan to use in place of my 2 panels now. Ive got a 36 ft boat and plan on a run of 12-2 on both sides for lights/fans with power bars on each bulkhead along the way to connect the lights/fans to. All the nav lights will be with 12-2 also. The hardest part is going to be the mast. Its wires are a combo of the old, the older and the oldest. Nothing works on the mast. Ive been to the top and there are 2 VHF connectors, a TV connector and what i think to be a cell phone connector. The tricolour light is in decent shape, but might could use a lense. By my birthday(3/30) this boat will be totaly rewired.