Electrical Upgrade

                                                  Main  Electrical system.

As with many older boats, cars etc. owners are modifying and running over the years new cables for their own purpose but in some cases this becomes a hasty job, especially when the cables are not in sight and this can result in not proper guiding of the newly installed wires/cables.
I understand  that we are working with low voltage but still in case of failures blown fuses it is important that cable runs can be followed, especially with the battery cables which will have a high amperage in a short circuit.
With the above in mind you already understand that I did not found the boat up to my standards.
From below pictures it can be seen that loose wires although connected were hanging around in the engine room spaces and fuse cabinet. Additional, battery cables were not seized correctly.

First attempt was made in removing the wires which were in my opinion obsolete and could be removed without jeopardizing the original installation. This was done around the batteries and in the fuse cabinet, this took some time but the result was that all looked already better.

To be honest I have done this several times with the cables around the batteries, also due to changing the position of the batteries in the engine-room space.

Eventually the final version was installed.

For example the main switches for the battery system were placed under the small hatch aft of the steering cabin near the doors of the aft cabin in the engine room space, long cables runs especially since the batteries were placed ports side under the steering console.

Moved the switches forward under the floor but that was not ideal.

Therefore I made a small cabinet next to the steering console where these switches were placed in.

Short cables between the batteries and steering console.

The batteries were place in between the engines in line forward to aft and I invested in Optima batteries as starting batteries and an additional house battery.

What I noticed was that each engine it's alternator was connected to one battery with no regulating system to check which battery was empty or full.

I therefore invested in a regulator which is fed by both engine alternators and checks which battery is the lowest in amperage, first starting to load the starting batteries before the house battery, also this unit was placed in the new cabinet.

This unit can feed 4 batteries but for the moment  I have connected 3 batteries; two starting batteries and one house battery, of which one start battery can also be connected as house battery to the electrical system, while the other one is solely a start battery. This way I should always be able to start one engine.

Further with this unit it gives me the opportunity to sail low speed with one engine on line while at the same time charging all batteries.

Picture of cabinet with charger unit and main switches.

The above picture shows also a charger for solar panels although old solar panels they still do charge the house battery.

The main electrical system was not fitted with main fuses between the batteries and the ships electrical system, therefore main fuses were installed as close as possible near the batteries.

With the changes by installing the charging unit, fuses and main switches the amount of cables increased but by using silicone cables the cable runs were not that difficult. Although it looks from below pictures a lot of cables.

The fuse cabinet was cleaned up as well light added and the fuse covers were marked with the fuse position behind the covers this way when a fuse blows it can be quickly replaced.