Inside Lights

                                                                 Inside lights

During the last years of restoring the boat and when all was accessible the electrical wiring was inspected at the same time.
During these inspections I came to the conclusion that hardly any wiring needed to be exchanged, did not find any discolored copper wires in the cabling nor was the outside of the cabling damaged, therefore a minor amount of new cables needed to be pulled for the lights, in the most cases new to be installed lighting.
With regards to the cabling for the batteries and cables around the engines most of them were replaced.
One of the reason to replace them was to install main fuses which are not a part of the original design of the boat. Other reason was that I wanted to use silicone cables which are no as stiff as normal battery cables and which are easier to install.
With regard to the lights are were replaced except a few in good condition the round ceiling lights in the most forward and aft cabin.

                                                                 Aft Cabin
In the aft cabin new lights were installed as bed/reading lights.
These light fixtures were fitted with LED lamps to reduce the power consumption, as with most lights installed where possible the halogen lamps were replaced by LED lamps.

The storage shelf port and starboard looked a bit dark to me and since I was running several new wires I installed LED strips to make the shelf more visible and at the same time create some more light in the aft cabin.

The aft cabin storage cabinet was a kind of dark to my onion and since I had some LED strip left and switches a part of the LED strip was installed in the cabinet.

The LED strip is relatively cheap and when one looks on the internet one can buy rolls of 10 meter, 20 meter or even longer. The advantage of these led strips is that they can be cut to length and directly be connected to the 12 volt circuit no additional transformer or anything else is required.

                                                     

Original ceiling light as far as I know.

Main Cabin

What I noticed that with the original light the main cabin is rather dark therefore some additional light have been added. When I bough the boat the center round light was removed and replaced by some smaller lights which in my opinion did not looked that nice.

A new concept was made from Mahogany with 3 individual lights which now do give more than enough light around the dining table.

Other lights were on the walls when I bought the boat but in my opinion not positioned in such a way that they would be good reading lights.

Therefore some investment was made and two flexible spots were bough and positioned on the cabinets this way creating lights on the corners of the couch. 

The same was done here as in the aft cabin with placing LED strips above the shelf behind the couch cushions.

The space behind the cushions is divided in an aft larger space as per above picture and a smaller forward space behind the small back cushion.

Since we have these days all telephones etc. which need to be charged through an USB behind this smaller cushion I placed USB ports for charging, as well as a lighter outlet for any other connection and a volt meter showing the voltage of the house battery.

For the kitchen area a light was placed on the wall above the sink and the original light above the stove was left in place.

The kitchen cabinets looked a bit dark as well and with keeping in mind all what I found when taking the kitchen area apart I thought it was a good idea to place also LED strips in the storage cabinets.

The larger storage cabinet next to the couch was also outfitted with a small light which becomes very handy since this cabinet is rather deep.

The bathroom has only one light which I did not changed since it is a fluorescent light which gives enough light for a bathroom.

                                                     Forward cabin, bedroom.

The original round ceiling light was kept in place to keep the boat as original as possible.

new bed light were installed against the cabinets in the forward cabin.

Bit classic look to try to match it with the age of the boat.

These lights do give more then a enough light for reading and checking the cabin in the dark if required.

In the port side larger cabinet was also a LED strip placed, in the small starboard side cabinet this was not done since it is so small that the light would not have any effect.

Further also here two USB ports were installed for charging.

Original ceiling light as far as I know, next to the ceiling light a small fan which works on solar power which I hope will create some circulation while the boat remains in the water during the winter months.

\

Steering Cabin.

In the steering cabin one larger light is positioned between the window wipers this way when one is docked or at anchor giving enough light in this area to move around without tripping.

Also here on the right hand of the console an outlet has been made for 12 volt, this allows for plugging in for example a navigation computer.

What I noticed was that the cabinet which holds all fuses was a kind of dark and especially when one needs to replace a fuse, which always can be done with a flash light in the dark but it is nice to have two hands free when changing a fuse.

Also here a LED strip was placed with a switch which activates the light when the doors are opened.

Sometimes I do get the question why keeping the old fuse system in place and not replace it with a more modern system.

One of the reason is that I wanted to restore and not rebuild the boat to as much as possible original condition the other one is that changing the amount of fuses to a new system would require more space and would become a kind of expensive.

The good part of the present system with this large amount of fuses is that the electrical system is set up in such a way that when a fuse blow that non of the cabins will be totally in the dark, which I think due to my work on board on ships is a major advantage.

For example there is one fuse for the port side aft bed light and starboard forward bed light, so if his fuse fails there will be still light in both areas.