by Warren Milberg
s/v Hunter 28.5 "CrewZen"
a loose receptacle hung down the back of the instrument panel in the lazarette that you slipped under
the locker lid and into the cockpit when you need to connect a device to it. Stranger yet, this receptacle
was wired to the back of the instrument panel by connecting the hot wire to the positive stud of the
ignition switch and the ground to the negative side of the tachometer.
I never really liked, nor understood, this arrangement and liked it even less when I noted no fuse in the
system. Yet, the fact that there is always more to do on your boat than there is either time or money for,
I used this receptacle for a number of years -- until it destroyed itself recently in a puff of smoke and a
whiff of melted insulation. Luckily, no damage to the boat occurred.
You would think that adding or replacing a receptacle to the cockpit of your boat would be a pretty
simple and straightforward chore, wouldn't you?
Here is what I did. I used a one and a quarter inch hole saw to cut a hole in the side of the locker next to
the instrument panel and then screwed and caulked in a new receptacle. Drilling a small pilot hole first
helps avoid chipping the fiberglass. Also, save the "donut" you cut out of the hole. It will come in handy if
you ever want to remove the receptacle and repair the old hole with epoxy and gelcoat.
Not liking the way the previous receptacle was wired, I had previously prepared some wires, and spliced
in an in line fuse holder, with a 15 amp fuse, in the red wire. I connected the wires from the back of the
receptacle to the (+) and (-) studs on the back of the ignition switch. I did this because (1) doing it
the"right" way would mean running new wires from the main panel in the cabin, through the bulkhead,
somehow through or around the head compartment, and then into the lazarette; (2) the studs on the
back of the ignition switch always have power (or so I thought) whenever my main battery switch is on;
and (3) studs are easy to connect to. All seemed to be working fine when I turned on the main switch
and plugged my GPS into it.
The GPS plug has a small red LED and it was lit. I smiled. All was well with the world, at least the
Chesapeake Bay portion of it. I decided to go for a sail, even though it was cold and blowy. I started up
the engine and motored out the channel. At some point, I noticed the LED on the GPS plug was not lit
anymore (the GPS was now running on its own internal batteries). My smile turned to a frown.
I assumed the fuse in the hot wire from the receptacle to the ignition switch had blown due to the surge
of power associated with starting the engine. When I got back into the marina later on, I checked the
fuse. It had not blown. So, not having the time or energy to really sort this out, I simply rewired the
receptacle the way the old one had been. Whatever works, works. The Previous Owner must have
known a lot more about electricity on boats than I do. I left the hot wire from the receptacle to the top
stud on the ignition switch, but spliced the ground wire into the wire for the tachometer ground. Bingo -
back to the future. All seemed to be
working well -- but I just don't understand it.
I realized that one must just accept certain things in life, and in sailboats, without explanation.
