Getting Started

[BillNH]

Would a circuit breaker trip if the negative wire was overloaded but not shorted out?

No, it would not trip, not the way a Cape Dory's DC system is wired. However, some marine DC systems, especially higher voltage systems, are protected on the ground side as well as the hot side...

[andrewaia]

I ordered one hundred feet of tinned marine wire and the book by Don Casey, that looks like it will come in handy in many ways. Right now I am looking for lights, I like these, they appear solid and not as expensive as some others.

https://kimberlitemanufacturing.com/ind ... 3cbb4a8d87

[mattlydon]

One thing I picked up somewhere is to use ny-ties every 6 inches or so with the tails left on, going in various directions, all the way up the mast. This cushions the wire against hitting the sides of the mast. Another variation was to run the wires inside some nylon single braid which is 'expanded' enough to get the wires in, then ny-tying THAT every few inches. The nylon line is fastened to the mast top and bottom, and supports the weight of the wire.

Matt

[mattlydon]

Sailorssolutions.com has the OGM lighting - very cool stuff, probably my next purchase....

They also have sensi-bulbs....I've got a couple - great replacements.

Matt

http://www.sailorssolutions.com/index.a ... y=Lighting

[andrewaia]

Well a little update, finally finished with the teak as far as I am going this year, re-wired the mast and installed new antenna and coax. Still need to finish up the wiring on the inside, stripping out old unused accessory wiring, and making good all other connections.

As I was working on the mast head I notice my jib halyard was over the port rigging connection. It was over the shiv and over the through bolt, I was assuming this was incorrect. From the diagram in the manual it looks incorrect. But wanted to double check.

[Sea Owl]

Andrewaia:

I would recommend you give some thought to capping off the through hulls for the head and installing a porta potty. Much less maintenance, its a fast fix, and cheap.

Previous posts have illustrated how you can run a 3 wire cable to run two lights....a running light and deck light for example (one ground, two hot). If you can't find it, let me know and I will PM you a drawing.

Jib halyard should go to the port sheave, and then down to the sail or tie off point. I do not have mine running over anything else.

Welcome to the CD club, and I hope you enjoy your boat as much as I am enjoying mine!

[andrewaia]

Sea Owl, I placed two pairs of wire in the mast along with the coax for the antenna, the pain was removing the foam that the last wiring person placed in the mast, they did not attach it to the wire, so it blocked my wire tape until I removed most of it, I used the zip tie method for keeping the wires quiet.

Now I need to repair the fiberglass on the seats, but the rain is making that difficult to keep dry so I can do the work...

[rtbates]

Concerning Oswego Johns post about wiring, I asked an electrician about this that I happened to run into on a job today. I know that a lot of boats use a single neutral/ground wire for a return to all the lights. This guy is not a boat electrician, but a house electrician. He said that you don't have the same amps on the neutral side as you do on the positive side. If you put an ammeter on each leg, the positive side will show many more amps than the neutral or ground side. .

I wouldn't let him touch my house wiring IF he doesn't know that for every milli amp flowing through the hot side better have the EXACT same flowing through the nuetral. IF NOT you'll trip a GFI(IF INSTALLED). It's this current flow relationship that makes GFI possible. GFI's trip with something like a 50 milli amps difference I believe is the number... Ground should NEVER carry current unless there is a problem..

[Oswego John]

Randy,

You are right on the target, a bull's eye.

That's just how a GFI does its job. The GFI samples the amp flow out of the hot wire and compares it to the amount of amps returning on that circuit. They should be equal.

In a dire situation, if some of the amps going out should short out through a persons body, this would set up a parallel circuit with some of the total supplied amps passing through a persons body to ground and the balance of the total amps returning through either the neutral wire or the negative return wire. The GFI senses this unbalance and immediately kicks out before much harm can be done.

I don't intend to get too deep into the subject, but I have to say that there is a world of difference between boat wiring and house wiring. Remaining within context, the basic type of boat wiring is straight, pure DC volts. The amps going out on a circuit equals the amps returning to the source.

The average single family house has a three wire, single phase AC supply. Here's where some confusion may rear its ugly head. Although the power supply is single phase, two of the three service wires are hot and the third wire is a neutral. The NEC (code) and the local power utility insist on a grounded system. To obtain an (earth) ground, either non ferrous or plated ground rods are driven down into earth and bonded together and to the service entrance of the house. It's gonna get fuzzier, trust me.

Here is why the amp reading may be less on the neutral than on the hot wire. To easier understand this mystery, lets call one of the hot wires "A". We'll call the other hot leg "B". The third service wire is "Neutral".

On a 115/230 volt AC system, if you measured the voltages across the differnt wires:

from leg "A" to neutral would read 115 volts.
from leg "B" to neutral would read 115 volts.
from leg "A" to leg "B" would read 230 volts.

Let's suppose that there was a 30 amp reading on wire "A" and there was a 20 amp load on wire "B". if you were to subtract the 20 amp load on wire "B" from the 30 amp load on wire "A", only the 10 amp difference between "A" and "B" would return on the neutral. Thus the lower reading on a neutral.

To go a bit farther, if leg "A" read 30 amps and leg "B" also read 30 amps, there would be a perfect balanced load and tne neutral would read 0 (zero) amps.

Oh, it gets much deeper, believe me. But the wiring of your boat hasn't much in common with the above.

Dark and stormies, anyone?

O J

[TheSandPebbles]

and then there is the two holes in my cockpit seats, never have done fiberglass/core work but I need to now. The one is in the middle of the seat, it will be easier, the one on the edge of the seat next to a storage well will be more difficult. What is the core material?

I just bought my CD31 in June, and dove right into a big wet core repair. I hope to get her in the water in another 4 weeks. the core is end grain balsa, but I'm putting in a high density foam core and have repaired two rectangles of deck so far along the port side. the seats/ storage well covers probably don't have a core, either way, consult the West System repair manual. This is a great guide and once you read up on the subject enough, the actual repair isn't so difficult.
I have to replace a mast head light as well, and will probably go with the "OGM" light mentioned in this forum. Unfortunately I have zero wiring experience. Good luck, sounds like we are in the same boat, so to speak.

[andrewaia]

Well what I have not ever done is the fiberglass work but I work with someone who has so I have been coached we will see how it goes...I really like the kimber lights...all wired up and ready to go just need to finish the connections from the mast to the panel, I wired up my last boat so this is something I am familiar with....I had two halyards 3/8" jib and spinnaker made up total cost for line and splicing in shackle was $130, the splicing cost more than the line...anyway Saturday will be a busy day

[andrewaia]

Come to find out I have a broken strand on my back stay....having no idea when the rigging would have been changed I guess I need to replace it all....

[andrewaia]

Electrical systems are set and now with the new rigging, a little paint to cover the fiberglass repairs in the cock pit, I am looking to put curtains in the cabin, none were there before does anyone know of the preferred method for mounting rods?

I will sale this season whoo hooo!!