My boat wiring project

[JeremyD]

It really started several months ago as a stop the boat from leaking project. I had to repack the stuffing boxes for the struts and rudders - and rebuild the raw water pumps that were leaking too. good times. I was worried the boat might actually sink if I disconnected the batteries for any length of time.

When I got the boat - a year ago, it was pretty obvious the electronic panel was original - some of the fuses had cracked from heat - one of the battery switches had melted/broken off. Not good.

Here are some prior pictures





and here it is now -



All wire was replaced that looked suspect or was hacked up - Got rid of all the fused wire - now everything is on circuit breakers. All the bilge pumps are going to separate breakers (they were all tied to one ). All right sized, heat shrinked, I can turn off the entire electronics on the boat and still have the three bilge pump circuits and the high water alarms active.

I also replaced the battery shelf (it was rotting) and installed a new charger that does a better job with the Optima batteries.





Big project - but it's all done - and works 100% the way I wanted it to work

[VINMAN]

Nice job Jeremy! My last Silverton, I completely rewired from the keel up to the flying bridge. The original wiring was a nightmare. Gutted it and started from scratch.

[herr_oberst]

A few mid ocean repairs add up to one gigantic cluster puck! Lucky that vessel didn't burn down to the hull. man, what a bed of snakes. Nice work on the restoration.

[JeremyD]

Yeah between the bakelite fuses (and some house grade fuses) and 26 years of wiring hacks - lucky it didn't catch on fire.

[arcsine]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

Is that a cockpit drain right above the panel and run through the wiring?

[JeremyD]

not Bertram's finest design feature. I'll be rerouting that...

[Tim Hancock]

Very nice job!!!

[URY914]

Looks like "Ship Shape TV". I don't even own a boat and I love watching that show.

[ODDJOB UNO]

nice werk jeremyd. boats can be real fun or an absolute nightmare.



when this chunk of land i have bean sitting on sells..............i will be into a formula(possible donzi) with twin 525EFI's and air conditioning/genset so fast it will make MY HEAD SPIN!

1) can park next to bedroom at home and plug in shore power

2) 2nd home write off

3) boat market is on its knees and will be for many many years

4) 525EFI mercs are damn near idiot proof and plug and play

5) normal maint from my boat wrench is 2500 bucks a year for new rubber,tuneup, and general maint on both 525 engines.

6) told my boat wrench what i wanted to do and he said dont come in here with anything smaller than 525's and dont come in here with anything bigger than 525's if ya want to have low insurance,low maint,simple maint,(staggered 525's are simpler) and very little to none headaches.

7) i add micro wave/single burner ORIGO gas stove and i am golden with wifey. already will come with refrigerator

8) a/c genset im a pig in POO!

9) camper enclosure (4) peoples can sleep comfortably when weather crappy

10) fresh water shower will change anybodys crabby attitude after a week or two on lake powell


since this will be my last big life HURRAH!($$$$) when im old and decrepid and wheelchair bound and have all sorts of tubes plugged into me, my last wish will be to be shoved out into lake powell with my hand on the sticks and my other hand on a lighter with some DET CORD attached to 195 gallons of chevron premium and have a NICE NORDIC TEUTONIC FUNERAL!


last time at powell on my 26ft, i had the above vision as i watched a go-fast go by us like i was standing still with this incredible looking woman.


i have the incredible looking woman now.....................jus need da boat to complete that vision.

i have bean studying this diabolical 1/2 assed brain fart idea since about the year 2001 when i surfaced from my dee-vorce. already bought the uber tow rig and have bean just fine tuning/analizing it over the years. this isnt some 1/2 baked idea. really have bean pondering merits of donzis vs fountain vs formula. i want to go so so fast but still have creature comforts like a/c microwave genset stove reefer/icemaker etc. i have boated for years and this is what i have settled on. the deals are out there and will be for years. i can move it from lake to lake or home if i want. i get a hell of alot more jazzed about maint on a boat vs a 2nd home. i'm already a prisoner to home depot to the dump i live in now doing maint and sure as hell dont need a place thats covered in snow 1/2 the year. i go rent a condo or hotel room for winter fun and leave the headaches to others.



send pictures of complete boat. what year bertram is this?

[VINMAN]

My next boat will only have oars or paddles...

[JeremyD]

[JeremyD]

[ODDJOB UNO]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

My next boat will only have oars or paddles...

yinman, you need to "DO" lake powell or have lake powell "DO" you before ya say that.


the absolute best vacation i have EVER had. no matter if we were on my cruiser pig, lil boat,houseboat anything!


water so pure you can drop your cup in it and drink it and never fear getting sick. 5 river systems feed it. its HUGE! more coastline than from vancouver to tj,messiko. you can literally get lost and NOT see people.


have bean from wahweep to hite marina in utah. houseboat rental with lil 16-18 ft to buzz around in doing canyon recons with a coupla of jet skis is the ultimate.


NO LIMIT ON STRIPPED BASS and they is HUGE! take them anyway ya want except "dupont spinners" (dyno-mite). spear them/gig them/run multiple hooks/live bait/dead bait/artificial bait what ever. have yer self a damn sharp FILET KNIFE and a BAR B QUE and the world is yer oyster.


look up escalante river(my fave). the caves are so BIG from wind water erosion you could fit a 100 boats under them and never get wet from a rain storm! yes its insane eye candy.


1) its the good ol USA

2) womens wear very little

3) fishing is off the charts

4) they speak american(english)

5) very very few people off season

6)year round boating if ya have heat and a/c

7) its FRESH WATER

8) HAUL ASS if ya got the beans or go putt putt and enjoy the view.

9) excellent sand beaches

10) zero (O) crime

11) women wear very little.


best time to go: anytime but sept til about early november is the UBER BEST!


fergot to ADD: the scuba diving is insane and you can legally SPEAR EVERY DAMN STRIPPER YA SEE as long as ya eat them.

[ODDJOB UNO]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

wow YOU SUCK! thats beeee-u-ti-ful! what engines?

[JeremyD]

Twin 5.7 mercruisers.

We don't have lake powell - but we do have gasparilla.

Gotta love the wenches!

[ODDJOB UNO]

arrrgggghh a pirates life for ME!


hell jeremy that is juan FINE bertram. twin 5.7's low maint/low bucks poured into them/run like a timex watch. cant beat the combination for ocean going vessel.


you can become a prisoner to them very quickly. thats why i did my homework and talked at great length with my boat guy and settled on 525EFI's.


its not the fastest, never will be, and i dont care.............cuz it will run ALL THE TIME! my boat guy phil bergeron has wrenched for formulas team and has done quite a few capsule boats as well as his son doing the circle boats for years. real savvy and i have known him forever as he has (2) hitachi seki CNC's and i sold him all the tooling. when boat parts slow he would bid on local aerospace stuff and machine those to keep CNC's going. classic friday afternoon bring a case of coors light and tell him yer boat problems and by the next week no mas boat problemos. great guy. went the extra 10 miles with me showing me how to maint drives/pull drives/blah blah. when i cant figure it out or dont have the tools the damn boat goes to him. never bent me over and always always helped out wayyy more than he needed to.


i have had my fair share of various problems on boats out on the lake. i had enough savvy to milk them back in a coupla times. and it sure puts a damper on the fun. having a good boat wrench who covers yer ass and looks out for small stuff before they become big problems is a true blessing and worth EVERY CASE OF COORS LIGHT X 100!

maintenance is job NUMBA UNO! and life is good and the wenches are happy. boats as with planes and cars dont like to sit.


that is going to be alot of fun for you and your family. im jealous living in this god fersaken dezert without a boat!

[berettafan]

eeeyikes that picture above is a nightmare to me!

boating to me involves a 17' side console aluminum boat with lots of floor space for crabbing/ducking/fishing and a salt marsh/river with nothing more than a few commercial crab boats to be seen in an entire day.

and boat ramps with zero people at them.

[notfarnow]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

All the bilge pumps are going to separate breakers (they were all tied to one ).

lol, what could possibly go wrong? You have to wonder what people are thinking sometimes

[ODDJOB UNO]

ya know one time i had this shop install a flo scan meter on my boat. they had to drill a hole in transom below waterline for the impellar. they drilled the 1/2" hole and put a clam shell on it. i looked at it and all seemed fine.


i had (3) rule auto bilge pumps and i thought life was perfect.


we head to rooselvelt lake. dump it in on friday. buzz around abit and enjoy all the button pushing giving me data on my floscan digital face.


bad storm comes up with sideways rain,wind etc. typical monsoon storm. so me being the smart boater i am, head fer port.


tie up boat crack some beers, and notice its really starting to get nasty. break out camper enclosures for top and by the time we got it fastened it was coming down in buckets with no let up for the entire night until morning.

we obviously pass the time drinking about a bazillion beers and fall asleep.


following morning get up, and decide to fire engine. turn blower on as per "captain safety" and we have no blower. hmmmmmm i think. did i turn batteries off last night, dead battery???? kick my buddies dead asses off the aft deck and pull engine hatch...........................


in front of my eyes is my big block 460 king cobra with water lapping at the valve covers. and my batteries are not working so therefore bilge pumps(all 3) are not working! HOLY POO WE ARE SINKING! remember i am thinking rain water at this time not lake water intrusion.


get my ducks in a row and its "all hands man yer battle stations" i grab a 4' long manual(man-well) bilge pump with a 6' hose and start pumping like a MOFO! buddies grab more manual pumps and then we got a hold of a 110 ac pump we plugged into shore power and that got us over the hump. found burnt toast bilge pump fuse fixed that. charged batteries off of shorepower. got bilge pumps running, but still noticed water.WTF??????????????


well buried behind steering ram was the water trickling down transom from floscan hole. no underwater adhesive inside nor outside would seal it. so in our infinite WIZ DUMB we bought about 3 dollars worth of double bubble gum and plastered it after chewing it into hole on both sides and the weekend was saved!


so from this you can see the VALUE ADDED BONUS of having at least (juan)-1 if not (2) manual bilge pumps!



ask me about the time we are minding our own bizzness drinking beers heavily, concentrating on fishing(yeah right?) on a mongo pontoon boat with LIGHTS ON at saguaro lake here and a bigassed gofast tries to PT 109 us at night and we damn near sank! 6 of us in the water faster than you can spit. talk about a wake up call! that sum ***** if we had caught him we would have killed him! everything thrown overboard. couch ice chests food beer everything in the water. that was a trip i just as soon ferget.


yep boating is fun.