Routing Cables in Cabin Roof

[Ron Hill]

Keel : You can run a #14 gage wire from the battery (Fuse it at the battery) and snake it under the galley flooring to the entrance of the aft cabin.  There should be a PVC pipe with the stove propane hose that you can run your wire thru to the aft cabin.  Lift up the seat in the aft cabin and look.  Then continue to run the wire aft to the starboard side of the rear cockpit and mount a 12V plug.

A few thoughts

[pbyrne]

I have a cable clam on the port transom just above the davit mount, that the solar cable passes through and I connect that to the panel on top of the bimini.  The cable itself is zip tied for the season cleanly along the bimini framework.

The solar power cable runs from the aft, along the hull to the nav table, and then goes under the floor to the battery area where the MPPT controller is.

On haul out for winter, I remove the zip ties, disconnect the panels, and remove the bimini, fold the frame for the winter.

This works very well, and to be honest I don't know how else you'd want to do this.  The cable clam is out of the way, and you cannot really hide the wires any better IMHO.  You don't even notice it for the season, and it can all be disconnected cleanly.

[KeelsonGraham]

Hi Ron, good to know about that pipe for other projects. However, my SP is mounted on the sprayhood so this isn't an option.

PByrne, yes, I think ziplocks etc are the best option.

[pbyrne]

Hi Ron, good to know about that pipe for other projects. However, my SP is mounted on the sprayhood so this isn't an option.

PByrne, yes, I think ziplocks etc are the best option.

Sorry, I was being a bit dim.  It's the dodger you've got you're panel on.  I think the cable clam somewhere on the transom is probably the least intrusive location for the cable to enter the boat.

If using that approach, and keeping your current mounting location, you may consider adding some cable holders (if you can get attractive ones) along the outside of the coaming to the bimini frame, and then from there you can zip tie.  Or, and this is the simplest thing to try, see if it's possible to nicely zip tie the cable from the sprayhood to the bimini frame along the outside of the combing.  Its not a long stretch there maybe it will lie nicely.

Last but not least, consider mounting the panel on the bimini if you have one, not sure from the photo, and if you did, you probably would have thought of that by now!