Before the halt - Electrical

Before I pretty much downed tools and walked away from the refit of Ronin, I had made good progress on the what amounted to a complete re-wiring of the boat. I decided to go ahead and spend the time and money because the twenty-five year-old wiring was becoming problematic. I was having problems with starting the engine. The original distribution panels were insufficient for our planned upgrades. The original wiring was corroding and in some cases, the connections to the breakers were either barely hanging on or were doubled up so that one breaker was responsible for several circuits. The overall mess behind the distribution panels was a problem if any emergency repairs were required.

Around 2000 I decided to pull the original distribution panels, paint them, replace any suspect breakers and generally just clean up the factory wiring as much as possible. It wasn’t pretty. I did the best I could without spending much money, basically sorting out and identifying all the circuits. That in and of itself was a fairly large job. I was able to come up with a wiring identification sheet so that I knew what was what behind the walls.

After replacing all the original connectors, I used the existing wiring and bus bars which I placed on up a simple wiring backing board to help organize things. Any orphan wires, and there were a few, were labeled and wrapped up for future investigation.

After completing that task, I roughed out a panel to replace the original one and screwed it into place at the navigation station. Not pretty but it did have some unique art features. And it functioned well. We kept it for a long time.

As I was doing this I was keeping in mind that I would need to do a complete refit of the electrical system. I took notes of all the wiring in the boat and put together a wiring diagram of the existing system.

In 2009, when I started in on the design and work to upgrade the electrical system I was able to put together a proposed wiring diagram for our upgrades based on the original wiring diagram. The preparation was well worth the effort.

 

After getting an idea of where I wanted to go, I started ordering. Distribution panels from Blue Sea Systems. Battery management panels too. Bulk wiring, cabling, connectors, bus bars, terminal blocks and switches. Any and all the tools that I didn’t already have.

Over the next summer I cut, pulled out, snaked in, added new and removed old, circuits that would replace the existing ones and used for new purposes. Although I already knew, it was still a big, time-consuming and expensive project. But I think that the results will be a big plus.

New distribution panel test.

New electrical wiring shelf and backing panel.

 

Some of the supplies. With an IPA...

More posts of previous work coming...

Introduction

I've started this blog primarily to keep friends and family up-to-date on the condition of our sailboat, Ronin. I'm also using it to keep a running record of the work that gets accomplished. Or that doesn't.

Ronin is a Rob Ball designed 1982 C&C 37, hull number 18 that we purchased from a bank sale in the Summer of 1997. She was in pretty bad shape, bare-bones, rode hard and put away wet and on the hard with the mast lying on the deck and the engine not running. Most buyers would have walked away and maybe we should have too but we got her for small money. Of course, as most boat owners know, buying a boat is the cheap part. It's the keeping that's expensive.

Over the years we've done major upgrades and repairs. Mast spreaders and standing rod rigging rebuilt, added Harken roller furling, all new running rigging, new Harken traveler and mainsheet blocks. The original boom was replaced with a new custom built item. We put on a 1/3 battened main and 140% laminate jib among other things.

We had the Yanmar 3HM rebuilt and converted to "fresh water" cooling (3HMF). New motor mounts and soundproofed the engine space. Refurbished the Martec folding prop and replaced the cutlass bearing. Replaced the stuffing box with a dripless seal.

We replaced all the cushions with new foam and covered that with Ultrasuede. Replaced the cabin sole. A new Broadwater 4-burner propane stove and oven to replace the original alcohol unit. A new head. Several water pumps because the originals were broken due to freezing while on the hard.

The non-functional B&G's were replaced with Raymarine ST60 instruments. An ST4000+ autopilot and new Icom VHF were fit. Used a cheap Garmin to keep the info flowing to the instruments and autopilot. Installed a Link 20 dual battery management display. We did retain the original Loran receiver until the signal stopped. You just never know...

We had the main hatches rebuilt by Atkins and Hoyle, replaced the fixed main cabin ports and both the opening Beckson ports. Added a cockpit dodger.

As all this was happening over the years we still sailed her, day sails, weekends and week-long cruises.

But over time even these repairs and upgrades began to get old and needed updating. The list of things that were wearing out, non-functional or outdated kept growing, as did the number of niggling problems. And the boat was still getting older and having typical old-boat issues.

So about 5 years ago we thought about what to do. We'd reached the decision point that many boat owners do; rebuild or replace. We both love the size, sailing characteristics and looks of the C&C 37 so we decided to budget the money for a complete refit. It doesn't really make sense given the amount of money put in versus what the boat is worth but that's the choice we decided to make.

I started in on the project, knowing that we would not be able to use the boat for several years. I was overly optimistic. After striping the boat of anything not glassed in or bolted down I dug in. And then pretty much stopped. Combination of new work environment and new duties. Then we decided to completely rebuild our house on the water where we keep Ronin. That right there meant that all my tools and supplies were in storage for a year.

But the house is done, I have a new shed with all my supplies and tools at the ready and most importantly, I am retired. So that means that I can spend time on the project. I hope.

Anyway, I am back at the refit of Ronin. Still a lot of work to complete. If all goes according to plan (yeah, good luck with that...) she'll be back ready to go for the Summer of 2015 with all new electrics, refrigeration, running rigging and lifelines, a couple of sails, ground tackle, new deck hardware, under deck autopilot, new dodger, rudder repair, keel tightening, rigging upgrades, and all new paint on the hull and deck.