Electrical Control Panel Replacement

[Mike and Theresa Vaccaro]

We're currently replacing our stock Seaward electrical control panel at the Nav Station.  I've built a replacement AC/DC panel out of Blue Sea components.  We're about halfway through the retrofit, and have a learned a few things worth passing on:

First, the rat's nest behind our old panel was a fire waiting to happen.  Two connectors were corroded to the point that they simply broke off in my hand.  A third AC connector (common, or "white" wire) had already failed and grounded against an adjacent DC bus.  Fortunately, the connector welded itself to the bus, the wire melted all the way through and the damage was limited to the wire.  This was pure, dumb luck.  Additionally, two factory-installed busses were simply hanging in space behind the panel.  I should point out, however, that this rat's nest was not the result of the factory installed system, but rather 16 years of poor maintenance and additions.

Second, the original factory components were adequate, but only barely.  16 years of neglect didn't help.  It is worth inspecting this area in your boat to ensure that wiring, connectors, busses, switches, and circuit breakers/fuses are properly installed.  Additionally, the AC system should be physically isolated from DC components.  This can be as simple as proper bundling of wire runs as well as covering components (busses, etc.).  Plastic covers are made for this purpose, but a clever use of "tupperwear" can accomplish the same thing.  On our 1988 model, the two systems were NOT physically isolated.

Third, a lot of unnesessary wiring was routed to the main panel.  Some wires simply went through the spaces although not connected to the control panel or busses.  When it was practical, we simply re-routed wires to get them out of this area.  Additionally, there was a bunch of wiring that simply didn't do anything any more.  Now is a great time to remove it.  

Please note that if you're not comfortable working around electricity, it's probably best to leave this project to an electrician.  If, however, you're inclined to do your own work, you have a few options.

CHEAPEST OPTION:  Inspect your system.  Replace questionable components, ensure proper wiring runs and re-route wiring to eliminate unnesessary wires from the area behind the electrical control panel.  Remove wires that don't do anything anymore.  Lable all wires.  

INTERMEDIATE OPTION:  Inspect the system.  Build a proper "breadboard" behind the electrical control panel for mounting busses, fuse panels, etc.  This can be made from plywood or staboard.  On older models, the factory glued wood to the inside of the hull for the purpose of mounting panel backlights and busses.  The new breadboard can be glued or screwed to this wood (use caution to size screws and holes to avoid penetrating the hull substrate when drilling!).  Mount busses on board to isolate AC from DC.  Consolidate DC circuits requiring any fusing in addition to the breakers in the main control panel.  For example, our "electronics" switch actually powers a separate fuse block on the bread board that has individual fuses and power lines for all comm and nav equipment.  This eliminates the need for low amperage in line fusing, and consolidates all fuses at a single location.  Clearly lable all of the busses and connections.  This will greatly simplify future maintenance.  On our boat, not a single wire was labled, and our wiring configuration did not match the factory schematics.  It took an entire afternoon with a low-voltage power supply to shoot all of the "mystery" wires and label them.  Remove wires that don't do anything anymore.

EXPENSIVE OPTION:  Remove everything and start from scratch.  The least amount of heartburn would be to use a drop in replacement panel from Seaward.  New panels use individual breakers and are much better than old ones.  It's also practical to either build your own panel, or have a custom made panel built by Bass, Blue Sea or Paneltronics.  The main "problem" with the Catalina 34 is the amount of space available for components.  Another thing to consider is future maintenance.  A hinged panel that drops down is very handy.  It allows rapid access to the back of the control panel as well as to the breadboard mounted to the hull.  If you choose the "drop down" panel, ensure that there is adequate clearance with any items you may have installed aft of the desk (in the side of locker immediately aft).  For example, if you have a stereo control head mounted in the locker, the knobs make stick out.  This will limit the overall size of your new panel if you want it to drop down to top of the desk.

How much the "expensive" option costs depends!  Our project, which includes Blue Sea components that we were able to obtain at a discount has cost about 8 boat units thus far.  By using off the shelf components to build the panel (vs buying a custom made panel), we saved enough money to buy a Link 10 battery monitor and all of the wires an connectors required for the new system.  Overall, I expect that it will cost about an even thousand dollars before all is said and done.  Also, this price doesn't include labor since I'm my own mechanic.  If you do hire an electrician, be patient, since it's tough to tell exactly what you're dealing with until you get into the project.  In other words, it will probably take longer and cost more than the original estimate.  When you consider all of this, the drop-in Seaward replacement panel cost isn't too bad!

When we finish up, we'll consolidate the lessons learned along with some pictures for the projects page.

Cheers,

Mike

[SteveLyle]

Mike,

This would make a great Mainsheet article - this hasn't been covered yet.  Take lots of pictures, before/after, etc..

Steve

[Mike Lofstrom]

I recently replaced the Dc battery switch in my boat with the Blue Sea parallel battery switch.  I put a West Marine battery combiner in the battery box under the dinette. After years of dealing with the traditional A-B battery swich setup in other boats, I am convinced that the Parallel swich setup is the way to go.  When I go down to the boat, I just turn on the master switches for the house and engine banks and off we go.  The two banks are isolated, so my electonics never get subjected to the starting surge, and the combiner charges them in parallel whenever the engine is running.  When the engine is off, the engine battery is isolated from the house load, so I don't have to wory about running it down inadvertantly.  The Blue sea Panel also has a cross connect switch to allow the house battery to be connected to the engine if the engine battery ever dies.  The Blue Sea panel covers the old A-B switch cutout perfectly  ( you have to enlarge the hole to a rectagular shape) , and lines up with the existing white lines on the original seward panel quite well.  The original seward panel is kinda flimsy when it is not bolted to the nav station, so you have to be careful when you take it out to enlarge the A_B switch hole to fit the Blue Sea panel. The hardest part of the job was labeling all of the wires before I removed them, so I could get the whole thing back together again.  I like Mike's idea about putting a breadboard or bussboard behind the panel.  When I had mine apart I noticed that there really isn't much strain relief for all of the connectors on the panel.  The weight of the harness could definately cause poor connections in the future.  With the bussboard concept, most of the harnes wires could terminate at the bussboard.  Then a seperate harness could be built to connect to the panel.

[SteveLyle]

Mike -

That would make a good Mainsheet article as well.  Especially because I've been thinking of doing that too.  Snap some pictures, write it up, and email it to me and I can get you published.  Looks great on your resume.

Steve

[Mike and Theresa Vaccaro]

Quick update:

Lots of hours and money later!  

Actually managed to rebuild the whole system without error (beginner's luck), only to suffer fits during the final "ops check" of the AC system.  Turns out the culprit was a faulty DOCK RECEPTICLE.  Spent almost 8 hours troubleshooting, including polarity and continuity checks for all AC wiring on the boat.  Nothing wrong with boat wiring.  Lesson learned:  Always start troubleshooting at the SOURCE.  This is pointed out in most repair manuals...falls into the same category as "fix the simplest thing first."

Use of GFI circuits on board.  Probably a good idea from a safety standpoint, although the basic circuit breaker should be adequate.  If you choose to install a GFI, it needs to be the source for all the "downstream" outlets.  In the typical Catalina 34 with a single outlet buss, this means mounting the GFI at the Nav Station.  Each GFI "output" circuit(technically referred to as the LOAD circuit) or circuit must have it's OWN COMMON BUS.  Also figured  this out the hard way.

No doubt a trained electrician would have figured this out in about 5 minutes; but now I know where every wire, breaker and fuse on the boat is and what it does.  Also, we're confident the basic systems are no longer a fire waiting to happen.

Like any other major project it cost about twice the original estimate and I overshot the time required by about 230%.  Will eventually submit lessons learned and photos to the projects page.

Cheers,

Mike