It's no wonder some yards and people who work on boats get a bad rap.....
Two weeks ago I got a call from a lobsterman who was referred to me by another one of my lobsterman customers. He told me that his boat sunk last summer and had been re-wired but stuff was not working and the guy who charged him 20K to rewire it would not return calls. I finally got out there yesterday.
His deck lights had failed to operate
His high water alarm and forward bilge pump had failed
His primary VHF had failed
His sounder was inoperable (pretty critical tool for a lobsterman)
His wash down pump had stopped working
His starboard nav light was inoperable
So I get there and notice that all the wire is indeed UL1426 marine wire, this was good. The bad part was the largest conductor on this 40 foot lobsterboat was 14GA, other than the battery cables for starting the 700HP John Deer diesel, which are also undesized. The vast majority of the wiring was just 16GA but some of it 18GA!
The guy who installed it, installed two DC panels. One in the cabin and one in the wheel house. The one in the wheel house is NOT up to the task of offshore fishing and continuous salt water spray. It is at best a panel for below decks on a Glastron lake boat. Three of the switches had already failed to pass current and two breakers were already toast. You could read voltage on them, which tricked the owner, but they would not pass any sort of load.
The panel was also installed with "friction fit" connectors not ring terminals. This is the last type of connection you want on any boat let alone a boat that fishes nearly 365 days per year, in all weather, on the ocean. The sounder and VHF had both simply vibrated off the breaker Others were so badly corroded, in 14 months, that it required sand paper and a SS brush to clean them then a heavy dollop of terminal grease to try and keep at at bay until he has more time to fix it correctly.
The deck light switch was toast and would not pass current. I replaced it and then measured the current draw. 14A on that circuit alone, massive spot lights, with 16GA wire of about 50' round trip. The wire warmed to the touch quickly.
The installer used some, but charged the owner for all heat shrink crimp terminals. He then used a mix of non heat shrink and heat shrink. The only terminals that were actually "heat shrunk" were in the bilge. All the others were not even melted, just crimped on. The nav light circuit, which is close to the pot hauler, was full of salt water as the butt splice had never been shrunk and was in a "catch rain" orientation. The crimp tool used was cheap and ripped half the heat shrink anyway. Many of the crimps simply came apart due to corrosion including the nav light circuit. The nav light circuit is a "critical" circuit that is not supposed to have any more than 3% voltage drop, he far exceeded that with the 18GA wire feeding it..
The second DC panel in the cabin was installed in the companionway hanging on a square piece of polycarbonate with two screws holding it dangling from the top. In rough seas, with foulies on, it is tough for a grown many to fit out this companionway let alone not grab the sharp corner of the DC panel with a sleeve. This is exactly what happened and why the remaining circuits refused to operate. The panel had been ripped from its roots and pulled a bunch or connectors right off too.
This poor owner also had a bad experience with the guy who installed his "propane" system for cleaning grass off traps on his last boat. It was installed with NO solenoids, propane locker or any other safety device that might even come close to satisfying ABYC guidelines or USCG standards for inspected vessels. As a result his boat blew up on the mooring sending the propane bottle over 100 feet into the air according to witnesses. The boat was totaled putting him out of work for nearly an entire year while his new boat was built. Some guys just can't catch a break........
Oh and the boat price as of yesterday for lobster was 2.95 per pound, only slightly more than I was getting in the early to mid 80's..... With diesel at $4.50 per gallon......
Two weeks ago I got a call from a lobsterman who was referred to me by another one of my lobsterman customers. He told me that his boat sunk last summer and had been re-wired but stuff was not working and the guy who charged him 20K to rewire it would not return calls. I finally got out there yesterday.
His deck lights had failed to operate
His high water alarm and forward bilge pump had failed
His primary VHF had failed
His sounder was inoperable (pretty critical tool for a lobsterman)
His wash down pump had stopped working
His starboard nav light was inoperable
So I get there and notice that all the wire is indeed UL1426 marine wire, this was good. The bad part was the largest conductor on this 40 foot lobsterboat was 14GA, other than the battery cables for starting the 700HP John Deer diesel, which are also undesized. The vast majority of the wiring was just 16GA but some of it 18GA!
The guy who installed it, installed two DC panels. One in the cabin and one in the wheel house. The one in the wheel house is NOT up to the task of offshore fishing and continuous salt water spray. It is at best a panel for below decks on a Glastron lake boat. Three of the switches had already failed to pass current and two breakers were already toast. You could read voltage on them, which tricked the owner, but they would not pass any sort of load.
The panel was also installed with "friction fit" connectors not ring terminals. This is the last type of connection you want on any boat let alone a boat that fishes nearly 365 days per year, in all weather, on the ocean. The sounder and VHF had both simply vibrated off the breaker Others were so badly corroded, in 14 months, that it required sand paper and a SS brush to clean them then a heavy dollop of terminal grease to try and keep at at bay until he has more time to fix it correctly.
The deck light switch was toast and would not pass current. I replaced it and then measured the current draw. 14A on that circuit alone, massive spot lights, with 16GA wire of about 50' round trip. The wire warmed to the touch quickly.
The installer used some, but charged the owner for all heat shrink crimp terminals. He then used a mix of non heat shrink and heat shrink. The only terminals that were actually "heat shrunk" were in the bilge. All the others were not even melted, just crimped on. The nav light circuit, which is close to the pot hauler, was full of salt water as the butt splice had never been shrunk and was in a "catch rain" orientation. The crimp tool used was cheap and ripped half the heat shrink anyway. Many of the crimps simply came apart due to corrosion including the nav light circuit. The nav light circuit is a "critical" circuit that is not supposed to have any more than 3% voltage drop, he far exceeded that with the 18GA wire feeding it..
The second DC panel in the cabin was installed in the companionway hanging on a square piece of polycarbonate with two screws holding it dangling from the top. In rough seas, with foulies on, it is tough for a grown many to fit out this companionway let alone not grab the sharp corner of the DC panel with a sleeve. This is exactly what happened and why the remaining circuits refused to operate. The panel had been ripped from its roots and pulled a bunch or connectors right off too.
This poor owner also had a bad experience with the guy who installed his "propane" system for cleaning grass off traps on his last boat. It was installed with NO solenoids, propane locker or any other safety device that might even come close to satisfying ABYC guidelines or USCG standards for inspected vessels. As a result his boat blew up on the mooring sending the propane bottle over 100 feet into the air according to witnesses. The boat was totaled putting him out of work for nearly an entire year while his new boat was built. Some guys just can't catch a break........
Oh and the boat price as of yesterday for lobster was 2.95 per pound, only slightly more than I was getting in the early to mid 80's..... With diesel at $4.50 per gallon......
