Electrics

[alancollins]

I have a gremlin in my boat's electrics. Does anyone know a marine electrician in the Southampton area? I have tried Bob Russell at BAR Electrical but with no response, so I assume he has gone out of business. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

 

[jamie langstone]

why dont you post what your gremlin is and see if someone from the forum can advise .

 

[superheat6k]

Wherabouts in Southampton ? If not too far from Hamble I would be happy to take a look and see if I can assist. If I can't it won't cost you anything.

 

[alancollins]

Wherabouts in Southampton ? If not too far from Hamble I would be happy to take a look and see if I can assist. If I can't it won't cost you anything.

Thanks Superheat. The boat is ashore at Southampton Drystack on the Itchen, just south of Northam Bridge. I think it's an earthing problem, but locating it is beyond me.

 

[superheat6k]

Thanks Superheat. The boat is ashore at Southampton Drystack on the Itchen, just south of Northam Bridge. I think it's an earthing problem, but locating it is beyond me.

Always up for a challenge !

 

[superheat6k]

Alan's issue was determined with ~ 20 minutes to be a very dodgy, and in my opinion downright dangerous, bullet fuse supplying far too much equipment - nav instruments, VHF & wipers. The end of the bullet fuse had overheated in the holder and melted the holder's plastic onto its end, causing a massive volts drop as soon as the wipers were started, this effectively dropped the voltage below the 11v minimum required by the plotter and explained why it kept turning off.

Fortunately the fuse end it had just gone high resistance and had not caused a cable fire.

Alan and I replaced this with a proper blade fuse box and ran fused separate feeds to the VHF, Wipers and Nav instruments. I also did my best to strain relieve the snakes wedding of various cables, etc. literally hanging within the wiring cupboard behind the helm station.

I have suggested to Alan a full day or so completely disconnecting, cable marking & listing, then re-connecting everything in proper looms and possibly using clip top trunking would drastically eliminate the likely hood of future problems, and Alan would have a reliable wiring reference and diagram of his domestic electrical services for future reference. I would also increase the cable size feeding this lot and add a dedicated feed direct from the battery switch for the VHF.

Nice boat BTW Alan.

 

[BartW]

thanks for sharing this outcome,
and well done for solving the problem, and improving a dangerous situation.

 

[alancollins]

And my thanks to superheat6k for a highly professional job.

 

[Jamie Dundee]

It's not an Antares 760 by any chance? The description fits perfectly the situation in mine when I got it, I've since reorganised the electric box with a new dedicated dual bus fuse box and battery switch cabled directly to the house battery.

 

[superheat6k]

I think it is an Antares 760 - you mean this awful wiring is normal WOW !

 

[Jamie Dundee]

I think it is an Antares 760 - you mean this awful wiring is normal WOW !

Looks like it. I think the original wiring was possibly ‘ok’ but after years of successive owners adding stuff to the existing set up it becomes overloaded. I stripped out loads of old obsolete wiring when I redid mine, there’s still undoubtedly stuff in there. At least I now know that all the main electronics are running off a stable, safe system.