Boat wiring

[Wing Mark]

A lot of the problems with cables and idents and all that, stem from the yotty tradition of cramming every wire into a small hole behind the chart table.

My, new to me, boat is pretty basic, there are nav lights, cabin lights, instruments, autopilot.
I want to add some solar charging, maybe a fixed mains charger. In time, a few things like pumped water.
I'm going to put some USB chargers in the aft cabin. Not at the chart table.
The heater doesn't need to be controlled from the chart table.
It's much quicker to fault-find a switch panel with 8 switches than one with 16, so splitting everything in half should make life easier?

I've used domestic square trunking to protect the wiring where it's vulnerable in lockers.

I sometimes use coloured heatshrink to distinguish wires, a short length of blue labelling a red wire at each end for example.

I worked with a bloke who sometimes used knots to identify wires. So you'd have 'Red' and '(k)Not Red'.... Drove everyone round the bend.

The key principle is do it right so it doesn't break, then you never have to fault find.

 

[De.windhoos]

For labeling something like a Dymo RHINO 4200 is a good choice. You can use it to print heat shrink tubes as well.
When labeling, Don't label just 1 end. Also label the cables where they pop out if there are a bunch of them.

To get a mousing line through a conduit, you can try using a very light line and a vacuum on the other end. If you're lucky it will suck the mousing line right through.

Before you do anything, make a diagram (using something like draw.io) and give every cable and wire a code. It's also a good idea to make a simple blueprint where all the cables will run.
I also made a spreadsheet with all the cables, cable length and thickness, and terminals and lugs. this helped immensely with sourcing the materials.
it looked like this:


When determining the length of a cable do not forget that cables also need to go up and down. For instance for the pos cable to my windlas, it was 1 meter down, 7 meters horizontal and 1 meter up.

 

[KompetentKrew]

I'm Dutch, so if you need help translating just let me know.

Very kind of you to offer. I'm actually in touch with the previous owner, but will let you know if I ever get stuck.

 

[KompetentKrew]

I sometimes use coloured heatshrink to distinguish wires, a short length of blue labelling a red wire at each end for example.

The more I think about this, the more I like it. A couple of different colours would make wires very distinctive.

UK residents may find this link useful: 590 Piece Coloured Heat Shrink Sleeving Kit

 

[lustyd]

yotty tradition of cramming every wire into a small hole behind the chart table.

switch panel with 8 switches than one with 16

We also have a weird fixation with having switches for everything despite many of those switches being permanently on while onboard.