Electronics-Rewire Question

Roger Long · Dec 20, 2008

Nice Christmas card. Unanswerable question without some actual information.

The cost or replacing all the electronics on my boat wouldn't be worth mentioning in the context of boat purchase and ownership. The cost of replacing the electronics outfit in many sailboats of even modest size with the setups now common would cost more than my boat.

Make a list, check it twice, and email it to these folks:

http://www.sawyerwhitten.com/

ask them how much and how long to install it.

If you are even thinking (at least realistically) of the costs of travel, lodging, voyage outfitting and prep, and sailing a boat back across the pond compared to the cost of buying one in the depressed market here, I don't expect the quote will shock you. However, you could probably buy a whole boat with the electronics you want right now for what you'll pay for a new outfit and installation labor.

Don12364 · Dec 20, 2008

Electronics? Maybe no big deal

I think you will find all the electronics are identical. These products are made for sale on an international market and use international standards. Also many of the electronics suppliers are British anyway - e.g. Raymarine and Brookes & Gatehouse and sell in all countries.
If you are referring to the electrical wiring then again the 12V DC wiring will also be identical. Red is positive and black is neg.
I imagine it would only be the shore power wiring which will differ, Europe using brown (Live=hot) and blue (Neutral) to the USA's black & white. I don't know if this would be allowed in the US but I do know my boat would not be illegal if I sailed it across the long pond.
Also the working voltage of any shore powered items will be 230 v 50 Hz, though again most equipment has an adjustment to cater for both 110 60Hz and 230 volts 50 Hz.
Of course the shore power socket outlets will need to be changed because they differ, but this is a simple task.
Again safety standards would be almost identical, poss higher in Europe due to the higher mains voltage.
Suggest you ask for a list of the items involved to get a better idea of what is involved.

Ross · Dec 20, 2008

Ducati said:
Seasons Greetings!

Was thinking of purchasing a vessel from the UK however the question of updating all of the electronics to bring them up to North American standard is a concern.

Would like to know if the task of reworking the electronics (by a professional) is expensive and if so is it costly. (Silly me, everything on a boat is expensive)

Merry Christmas.

Just what manner of boat are you looking for that you can not find on the Chesapeake?

Stu Jackson · Dec 20, 2008

Uhm, could a "giveaway" be the

VOLTAGE of the electronics?

Charging from shorepower is a completely different issue.

John Nantz · Dec 20, 2008

Speaking of just the AC side

European wiring is for 240V which requires much smaller wire than the US 120V. The incremental cost for 120v wiring on a 47-foot Bavaria back in 2000 was a lot more than I ever imagined. I don't remember the amount but it seems to me it would make a big hole in a 10K bill.

To re-wire the same boat would cost even more because the existing wiring would be in wire harnesses and be difficult to remove. The conduits, if there any, or the access holes, might be too small and need to be enlarged to accommodate the larger wire bundle.

Unless you lit on something really special, I don't think that Europe is a good market for boat buying right now and hasn't been for about a decade. Sure the dollar gained a tad against the Euro recently but that's nowhere near enough to make up for the hassle if you intend to bring the boat back to North America. If you're going to use it for cruising Europe that's a different story.

I'd think the DC side should be okay, though.

If you're looking at used boats, personally, I wouldn't look in Europe - too much hassle. New boat? That's a different story, but even they are expensive because, even though it has recovered a bit, the dollar still doesn't buy much over there.

sailingdog · Dec 21, 2008

The problems are two-fold.

As noted by John, the shorepower side is most likely setup for 240 VAC, rather than 120 VAC... and the wiring will be undersized for the 120 VAC. Most of the AC powered appliances are also going to be only 240 VAC appliances, and will need to be replaced.

Further, some EU boats have a 24 VDC house system. If that is the case here, your DC house wiring is also going to be undersized, and the electronics are all going to need to be replaced.

I think you'd be far better off spending a bit of the money you'd would have spent refitting the electrical systems on the boat on getting a US-market boat, that has 120 VAC and 12 VDC systems instead.

Also, the dollar is kind of weak at the moment, meaning that your boat bucks are going to buy less in the EU than they would here in the US.

Dick Dixon · Dec 22, 2008

Four years ago I purchased a French made 37' Kirie Elite. One of the first things I did was replace the shorepower panel. Being a 1985 model, previous owners had 'made electrical things work' and I couldn't take any chanes. After spending a couple hundred bucks on the panel, I was lucky enough to have a talented friend who wired it together. I have never regretted it....