Islander 27 Electrical question

[TabbyQ]

Hello - we purchased a "new to us" 1970 Islander 27. The prvious owner had not had active batteries in the boat for some time. We have replaced batteries and are trying to figure out if the depthsounder and knot meter are working. The boat is currently out of the water on stands. The batteries are in the lazarette and there is a terminal box in there with two 10 am glass fuses. Right inside the boat at the companionway there is the islander switch panel and the flip switches have little fuses next to the switches. We are replacing those, but all the descriptions of items on that interior switch panel include everything but depthsounder/knot meter. It's prpbably just a matter of trying to trace through what goes to what. Does anyone have an Islander 27 of this era and do you have some ideas how that might be wired?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Ross]

I have a 1968 Islander 30 but the electricals were such a mess that I simply rewired the entire boat with new wire and circuit breakers.

 

[TabbyQ]

We hope we don't have to do that yet. We are trying to sail it to our home port and were trying to see if we could get the depthmeter to work. The channel we must go through before we get out to open water is shallow and narrow. I've posted some pictures to my album.
I read in Don Casey's book for boat maintenance that the first two fuses next to the batteries near the master switch are fuses for the staring circuit or to protect from shorts. The other fuses in the panel are for the circuits. My guess is the accessory circuit should be for the depthfinder/knot meter and I should try to change out that lower fuse...

 

[Ross]

my depth sounder is wired with its own 3 amp fuse inline. I would just chase the wire from the display to the battery and from the display to the transducer.