Boat electrics

Got down to King Malu by about 8:30 and started working on the wiring. Tim was already grinding away at the port side removing anti-fouling. I fitted all the MCBs and then worked out how to split the buss bars so that we have three battery 'pools', two of which are on the breaker panel.

Let me explain the logic. You don't want to have your boat unable to start the engine so its pretty normal to have a single starter battery and then a 'domestic' supply for everything else. However... now that we are heading towards electronic navigation etc, there are two areas you want to protect: Starting the engine and the navigation instruments. So we decided to get three pools of batteries, one battery for starting the engine or generator, one or two batteries for navigation instruments and two or three batteries for domestic supply.

Soon after I started Ken turned up and so I stopped for a bit to help him. He is making a new manual winch handle for if the anchor winch motor fails. We found problems with the gypsy for the winch and the winch itself, so ended up removing the whole winch motor to work on it off the boat. I went back to wiring...

Then Michael turned up, he returns to the UK tomorrow so wanted to come to see the boat. I showed him round and he took some photos... the ones you see on this blog entry.

Then Costas, the Raymarine rep, turned up. We have placed the contract with him for Raymarine navigation equipment and he came round with the depth sounder which we need to fit before we put King Malu in the water. You need a 52mm flat downward looking space on the hull to fit the sensor. We don't have that. So option 1 is to slightly shave off the side of the sensor and option 2 is to use the existing sensor. Next week he will come back with test gear to check out the existing sensor. I went back to the wiring...

Showing Michael round I realise the boat is getting pretty untidy: It really needs a good clean and tidy up. Michael leaves. I get back to the wiring...

Ken then turned his ministrations to the engine. All the belts and all the hoses need replacing and he was particularly keen to work out how to replace the timing belt. He couldn't find any of the timing marks needed for checking the timing on a replacement belt. So I looked out the Ford manual, which was absolutely covered with oil [obviously a well used book] and between us we figured out how to do the timing for the engine and also how the secondary water cooling system worked. He then turned his ministrations to the final stuck sea cock. I went back to the wiring...

So now while wiring I have grinding noises coming through the hull from Tim and banging noises coming from the sail locker from Ken. And I'm thinking 'Do I need a 10amp or 6amp breaker in this or that position...' BANG, BANG, 'Yes, I can get that to work if I move the lighting supplies three breakers up and and the blowers three breakers down...' GRRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNND.

Suddenly no more banging, no more grinding and a yell of 'YES' from the sail locker. The final sea cock has been freed and Tim has finished all the grinding off anti-fouling for the day. So out comes grinding paste and fine glass paper to polish the sea cock and to grease it with Blakes grease. And that's it for the day. I don't get back to the wiring, but tidy and clean up the boat as Ken and Tim head off for showers.

Tomorrow I will get back to the wiring!