my '78 catalina 30 has fuses. i was thinking of upgrading to circuit breakers. would it be worth it. also any breaker panels anyone would recommend. thanks
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Good idea. It can be fairly intense work.
There are many good electrical panels available through venders such as West Marine etc. Most are well documented with instructions and diagrams. There are books by fellow sailors such as Nigel Calder that deal with boat electrical systems. If you mechanically inclined and understand marine electrical systems then it is fairly straight forward to convert to breakers. If not, then you might be best served to clean-up your existing system. When you convert to breakers and the new panel you will run into problems such as wires that are to short to fit, burned or bare wire ends that must be addressed before installation. You might need to balance curcuit loads if some runs have been modified by previous owners. You need to use correctly tinned wires etc. After all this you need to add a factor of 4 to the time you planned on for this project. I don't want to scare you off because this can be a nice improvement if you plan to keep the boat and add to her down the canal. (how did you like that variation of "down the road"? With some study of the books available this is not an un-do-able improvement. For myself, I find a lot of enjoyment in simple messing around fixing my boat and twisting a few caps. Ray
There are many good electrical panels available through venders such as West Marine etc. Most are well documented with instructions and diagrams. There are books by fellow sailors such as Nigel Calder that deal with boat electrical systems. If you mechanically inclined and understand marine electrical systems then it is fairly straight forward to convert to breakers. If not, then you might be best served to clean-up your existing system. When you convert to breakers and the new panel you will run into problems such as wires that are to short to fit, burned or bare wire ends that must be addressed before installation. You might need to balance curcuit loads if some runs have been modified by previous owners. You need to use correctly tinned wires etc. After all this you need to add a factor of 4 to the time you planned on for this project. I don't want to scare you off because this can be a nice improvement if you plan to keep the boat and add to her down the canal. (how did you like that variation of "down the road"? With some study of the books available this is not an un-do-able improvement. For myself, I find a lot of enjoyment in simple messing around fixing my boat and twisting a few caps. Ray
Keep it simple
OR spend lotsa money for little return on investment. Seaward makes the Catalina panels. That said, see the link
OR spend lotsa money for little return on investment. Seaward makes the Catalina panels. That said, see the link
thanks for the help
i just bought the boat 2 months ago and now going through it, i noticed the previous owner had alot of things wirenutted together or just taped. so i figure while i'm replacing most of the wiring, i might as well replace the panels. like yourself, i like to tinker with the boat. plus it's my first boat so i figure it's a good way to familiarize myself with all the elec. items. another quick question. are your batteries under the nav. table. the ones on this boat are next to the engine which i don't particularly care for.
i just bought the boat 2 months ago and now going through it, i noticed the previous owner had alot of things wirenutted together or just taped. so i figure while i'm replacing most of the wiring, i might as well replace the panels. like yourself, i like to tinker with the boat. plus it's my first boat so i figure it's a good way to familiarize myself with all the elec. items. another quick question. are your batteries under the nav. table. the ones on this boat are next to the engine which i don't particularly care for.
Simple: by keeping the existing
panel. No reason he can't redo all the wiring without spending additional $$ for the new panel and breakers. Sometimes if it ain't broken...our 1986 fuse panel is working just fine while we've started to replace some of the wiring and some switches. I spent all of $9.36 for a bunch of fuses of the different sizes we need.
panel. No reason he can't redo all the wiring without spending additional $$ for the new panel and breakers. Sometimes if it ain't broken...our 1986 fuse panel is working just fine while we've started to replace some of the wiring and some switches. I spent all of $9.36 for a bunch of fuses of the different sizes we need.
breakers are much better
Yes, it's much less expensive to stay with a fused panel if it's working correctly. If you've ever fumbled around looking for fuses in a crisis, you'll want a breaker panel. I love the Blue Seas panels, a definate upgrade over the SeaWards. Dave Groshong Customer Service SailboatOwners.com
Yes, it's much less expensive to stay with a fused panel if it's working correctly. If you've ever fumbled around looking for fuses in a crisis, you'll want a breaker panel. I love the Blue Seas panels, a definate upgrade over the SeaWards. Dave Groshong Customer Service SailboatOwners.com
Fumbling Around?
We have a small plastic tray with cover labeled FUSES in our nav station. Each size fuse is in its own small container identified by amperage. What's so hard? And if a fuse blows when its gnarly out, you'll be wanting to get back in before you find the actual source of the blown fuse, because replacing the fuse isn't gonna fix the problem that caused it to blow in the first place. Same with resettable breakers, and if used should be "trip free" -- it should not be possible to hold them shut when they have tripped open, and also be ignition protected. If the existing fuse panel and what's behind it are in good shape, then the lesson learned will be the wiring throughout the boat anyway. If it's poor, then replacement makes sense, and the new panel can be built out of available sized panels from Blue Seas and others, specially made to fit (very expensive and worth more than the boat!), or ordered from Seaward to assure a fit on a vintage Catalina. His boat, his choice -- go for it!
PS suggest trying C30 Owner's Association website, too: www.catalina30.com
We have a small plastic tray with cover labeled FUSES in our nav station. Each size fuse is in its own small container identified by amperage. What's so hard? And if a fuse blows when its gnarly out, you'll be wanting to get back in before you find the actual source of the blown fuse, because replacing the fuse isn't gonna fix the problem that caused it to blow in the first place. Same with resettable breakers, and if used should be "trip free" -- it should not be possible to hold them shut when they have tripped open, and also be ignition protected. If the existing fuse panel and what's behind it are in good shape, then the lesson learned will be the wiring throughout the boat anyway. If it's poor, then replacement makes sense, and the new panel can be built out of available sized panels from Blue Seas and others, specially made to fit (very expensive and worth more than the boat!), or ordered from Seaward to assure a fit on a vintage Catalina. His boat, his choice -- go for it!
PS suggest trying C30 Owner's Association website, too: www.catalina30.com- Status