The electrical system on the boat consisted of 2 switches to control the navigation lights and the mast light (all of which were non-functional). Since I actually enjoy working with electrical components this project was right up my alley!
First, I did a rough diagram of what I wanted to accomplish. My plan was to run everything using a 100Ah battery connected to a 100 Watt solar panel. While an overkill, my initial plan was to also run a trolling motor with the same battery (more on that in another post).
I knew I initially wanted to include the following, with a room for expansion later:
- Navigation Lights
- Mast Light (Anchor light)
- Bilge Pump
- Depth Finder
- Radio
- Autohelm
Next was a decision on where to mount the switch and fuse panels. I settled on using the divider panel. After cutting a whole, the switches were mounted and all the wiring ran. most of the original wiring was integrated into the hull, so I reused it as I had to, but ran all new wiring where I had a choice. The backside looks a bit ugly but will be covered up with a panel at a later time.
The boat came with 3 (!!!) autohelms. One of them was broken, one was an older model, and the last one was a newer model. I opted to wire the newer model, which included running a new connector to the back (which was luckily included in the boat box of parts).
