new proud owner - pls help with fire damage advice !

[day dreamer]

Good morning to everyone on the site -


I am a newby and proud owner of a 1990 catalina 34. I m very excited to take possession next week. (previous boats =  Allied Seawind + Catalina 30, fin)

some of you may have seen her on e bay last week for sale by usauctions -

http://usauctions.com/ItemDetails.aspx?ID=9608

( if I outbid you - I m real sorry .  but I had to have her ! )


so, from the pics one can see fire damage which seems to have originated from a short at the electrical panel.    (can t work out how to include a pic here !)



1  Obviously I ll scan this site for help, but has this occurred to anyone else ?    What, and just guessing, may have been the cause ?

2  I have some handy skills - mainly woodwork -  but where would more experienced electricians start ?

e g =  2 / new batteries,  find source of short, replace wiring with correct grade,   then stand well back when you flick the switch ???
 

3  The panel looks well fried,  Does anyone have a used electrical panel I can purchase / have ?


Boat s in Rogersville, AL


Kind regards to all owners,


Day Dreamer (yes I m a Brit !)

somebody pls tell me how to include a pic - insert image icon does not work for some reason - 

[Stu Jackson]

Congratulations & Welcome Aboard.

How to post and resize pictures:  

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4053.0.html

Electrical:  You'll need to open up the panel and see what's left.  You'll most likely need to start from scratch.  If you look in the C34 Tech wikis, click up at the top of any Forum page, under Electrical you'll find some articles of skippers who have rebuilt their panels.  Seaward was the maker of the panels, but they recently got bought out by Whale and don't sell to individuals anymore, although you might try to find a local distributor.  Most likely better off with a new Blue Sea panel anyway.

The manuals are also in the Tech wiki, so if you don't have one, you can download one for all the wiring.  Then take a look at the Electrical 101 topic for wiring ideas.

I strongly urge you to read all the "sticky" topics, most importantly the Critical Upgrades and then the "101 Topics" as you go along, but asap.

[Kevin Henderson]

Hi Dreamer,
Welcome to the C34 community and congratulations on your new... albeit a bit smokey C34 .

First, I highly recomend joining the Catalina 34 Association.  This will get you access to all the previous years technotes all the way to 1986... an incredible volume of tips and upgrades.

A couple things and I'm certain several others will offer some advise as well:

Start off reading the Quick start guide -  
http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5260.0.html

Since you have a large project in front of you also check out the Critical Upgrades... particularly the wiring harness -

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,5078.0.html

One of my favorite contributers on various topics is Mainsail (A regular poster here).  He has several "How To" articles at his website and for particular interest to you would be the electrical termination "How to's".

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/wire_termination

Finally... to attach a photo when you post.. click "additional options" and navigate to the photo you would like to post.  There is a size limit of 150Kb so you may have to resize your original pictures.  You can do that here:

http://www.resizemypicture.com/


Welcome to the C34 community and please keep us informed of your progress and ask lots of questions... everyone is here to help.  

[Clay Greene]

Congratulations on your purchase!  She looks like a nice boat on the outside.  You obviously have your work cut out for you on the interior.  I think your woodworking skills are about to expand!

From the pictures I could see on the USAuctions site, it looks like the fire did not originate behind the panel because the wiring does not look charred or even blackened.  There was a suggestion that the fire could have started from the battery charger, which would make sense from the burn patterns if it was mounted below the chart table.  The good news there is that you may be able to salvage a lot of the wiring. 

I agree that you're going to want to buy a new Blue Sea panel and there are posts on this site from people who have replaced and re-wired their panels.  Might I suggest that if you do not have expertise in boat electrical work, this is a project you might want to outsource to a professional, particularly the AC side of the project?  You've obviously saved some money through this unconventional method of purchasing a boat so this seems like a good investment to me. 

Interesting that the batteries are gone.  I wonder if there was a surge through the AC system that fried the batteries through the charger?  I would look at your shore power cord and plug to see if they were damaged. 

Best of luck - I am sure she will be as beautiful inside as she is outside when you get done with her!

[day dreamer]

Thanks everyone for your input  and welcome to the forum -

I ll certainly join to take advantage of past knowledge. I have been in touch with the owner who has kindly supplied more info ...

A lightning strike hit the marina which didn t have the necessary gear to dissipate the volts ...  seems the boat s  battery charger / mains was plugged in ... 

Not sure if this is good news or not ...   I guess most wiring may be intact - but electronics fried. Going to be a fun project !

the panel company wants me to measure the panel - they say there could be differences even in the same yr ...

any other thoughts welcome ...

Ian