Small O'Day 20 mod

Jul 30, 2019
216
Seaward 25 777 Fort St. James
When I bought her last summer, the 6'3" previous owner told me of his struggles getting the battery out for winter storage, from its location at the stern end of the port quarter berth. When I got in there myself, though a lot less than 6'3" I did not feel happy. Rather like Count Dracula going for a nap.

port quarter berth.JPG

I decided that some easier access would be desirable, so online I went, of course, and found that hatch lids can be very expensive. Then again, I discovered a line made by Amarine. I ordered one that was 17.25" by 12.4", with an opening of 14" by 9.5", at only $42 Canadian dollars, with free shipping from UNoHoo. The reviews were very positive, and when it arrived it certainly seemed well made and robust. Easy to install on butyl tape, and now I have access not only to the battery, but what seems to be the original factory wiring, done on the Spaghetti Principle..... but at least now I can get at it without having to wriggle down a narrow dark tunnel and turn my multifocals upside down to try and figure out what I am looking at. A big convenience, and one I recommend highly. Note that I decided to mount the cover on the vertical surface rather than on the cockpit seat surface, where I think it would make seating less comfortable. I also could stick a tote at the stern end, though I think I'll make something a little better to fit there.

Bob

port quarter compartment access 01.JPG


port quarter compartment access 02.JPG


battery and wiring access 01.JPG


amarine hatch specs.JPG
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,732
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
Now that's cool! Thanks for posting that. I'll need to do something like that myself, at some point.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
Sep 29, 2015
110
Oday 222 Lake N ockamixon, pa
Great idea! One thing I noticed is, there are no circuit breakers, that I can see. ?
 
Jul 30, 2019
216
Seaward 25 777 Fort St. James
Thank you, Mr. Mayhem. The inside is clean anyway! Cleaning the exterior surfaces will come when I get the furnace fixed, hopefully this week. The building furnace, that is. This is the Frozen North and washing does not go well sub-zero. I wish I knew more of its history, but it seems not to have had anything catastrophic occur in its 45+ years. Sadly it now belongs to a complete idiot.

rschuss, it would seem that the limited number of loads are all fused in-line. I believe so anyway. Since all the wiring except for the ICOM VHF unit runs between skins, I think that it is original, although I am willing to be corrected. It would have been difficult to rewire like that.

Bob
 
Last edited:
Sep 29, 2015
110
Oday 222 Lake N ockamixon, pa
Between the hull and headliner material, I found the wiring to the cabin lights and the mast lights. With a fully charged battery, 12.6 volts, I get a large voltage drop at the lights, maybe 11 volts available. I haven't investigated; but either there is a voltage drop in the wiring, circuit breaker or both. Since I replaced the bulbs with LED's it doesn't matter much; but I ran separate wiring for my inverter, which is installed at the center bulkhead. I attached the cable to the hull under the port birth. I also ran a separate power cable to my GPS, behind the rear bulkhead, at the starboard side of the companionway. The transducer is buried in wax all the way forward down in the bottom of the bow. That cable I ty-wrapped along the hull and brought it through the liner with a small hole and routed it up and over behind the bulkhead to the GPS. Mine is a O'Day 222. It would be nice if they had used a plastic pipe and routed all the wiring through that from the battery through the hull.
 
Jul 30, 2019
216
Seaward 25 777 Fort St. James
Between the hull and headliner material, I found the wiring to the cabin lights and the mast lights. With a fully charged battery, 12.6 volts, I get a large voltage drop at the lights, maybe 11 volts available. I haven't investigated; but either there is a voltage drop in the wiring, circuit breaker or both. Since I replaced the bulbs with LED's it doesn't matter much; but I ran separate wiring for my inverter, which is installed at the center bulkhead. I attached the cable to the hull under the port birth. I also ran a separate power cable to my GPS, behind the rear bulkhead, at the starboard side of the companionway. The transducer is buried in wax all the way forward down in the bottom of the bow. That cable I ty-wrapped along the hull and brought it through the liner with a small hole and routed it up and over behind the bulkhead to the GPS. Mine is a O'Day 222. It would be nice if they had used a plastic pipe and routed all the wiring through that from the battery through the hull.
I am no expert on electrickery, but I wonder if it might indeed matter with LEDs. Firstly because your LEDs might have a minimum voltage for functioning, but presumably you already found that they worked. Secondly I would want to talk to an electrician to ascertain whether the LEDs trying to draw a higher current might lead to the wires heating up. Like an electric toaster. Pity to toast one's boat!

Bob
 
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Likes: Will Gilmore
Sep 29, 2015
110
Oday 222 Lake N ockamixon, pa
Light Emitting Diodes, LED's, consume very little current, perhaps in the area of 20 milliamps, compared to 2000 milliamps of a regular lamp. They also can be pulsed at higher current levels for short intervals of time to make them brighter. That's the reason most folks are changing to LED's; they are very efficient. Another way to express it is Power=volts x amps. For example, a regular incandescent light it's 12 volts x 2 amps = 24 watts of power. For an LED it's 12 volts x .02 amps = 0.24 watts of power. By the way .02 amps = 20 milliamps. Also it only takes 1 volt to excite an LED. Yeah there's electrickery in it. Go for it!
 
Jul 30, 2019
216
Seaward 25 777 Fort St. James
Light Emitting Diodes, LED's, consume very little current, perhaps in the area of 20 milliamps, compared to 2000 milliamps of a regular lamp. They also can be pulsed at higher current levels for short intervals of time to make them brighter. That's the reason most folks are changing to LED's; they are very efficient. Another way to express it is Power=volts x amps. For example, a regular incandescent light it's 12 volts x 2 amps = 24 watts of power. For an LED it's 12 volts x .02 amps = 0.24 watts of power. By the way .02 amps = 20 milliamps. Also it only takes 1 volt to excite an LED. Yeah there's electrickery in it. Go for it!
A good explanation. No toasted boat. I'll toast to that.

Bob
 
Nov 9, 2012
2,500
Oday 192 Lake Nockamixon
I've replaced all my incandescent bulbs with LED, and moved to a 1U tractor battery. The logic was to reduce draw on the battery, and to then have a smaller battery that's easier to carry home for charging every so often. If it didn't stay charged, and I killed it, I figured it was cheap enough that if it lasted 4 or 5 years, I'd get a new one. Instead, I got even lazier, or maybe I got one more toy, depends how you look at it, and added a 5 watt solar panel with built in charge controller. So now the battery stays in the boat all season. My buddy got an LED voltage meter for his RV battery - I might have to get one of those (again, a new toy) just to show me that my battery is not ever remotely drawn down!

My LEDs are a mix of warm white Dr. LED festoons for stern and steaming lights, a Lunasea combo red/green light for the bow light, and a Marinebeam red/white switchable wafer with bayonet plug for the interior dome light. Turns on, shows red for night vision. Switch off and back on again within 10 seconds, shows white light as good as my home living room lamp. I thought I could use a warm white for the bicolor light, behind the colored lens, and that it would be the same as the incandescent, but it turns out the LED doesn't throw a broad enough spectrum, so the light looked washed out orange and blue. But using the red/green combo LED looks right perfect behind the colored lens.

There is a consideration that using an LED in a fixture originally designed for incandescent puts me at risk legally in the event of an accident, but I accept that risk as negligible for my home waters.
 
Sep 29, 2015
110
Oday 222 Lake N ockamixon, pa
According to Chapman, for sailboats, the only specification for "lights" is that they be visible for 2 miles. There's nothing about incandescent or anything else. That's my take.
 
Mar 2, 2019
433
Oday 25 Milwaukee
The voltage drop from 12.6 to 11 volts is pretty significant in my opinion . When I dragged our Oday 25 home the wiring was a mess to say the least . Yes the wiring from the factory was laid between the cabin top and the out skin .
I pulled all new wiring and used circuit breakers that showed voltage to the breaker itself (lighted ).
Now if and when there is an addition ,I know it can be installed safely .
Some functions ,such as the bilge pump and autopliot are fused and run directly to the battery .
 
Jun 2, 2004
1,923
Oday Day Sailer Wareham, MA
According to Chapman, for sailboats, the only specification for "lights" is that they be visible for 2 miles. There's nothing about incandescent or anything else. That's my take.
The white light would need to be visible from 2 miles, the red and green sidelights for a 20' boat only need to be visible from 1 mile. The 2 mile standard for the red/green lights is for 39.4' to less than 65'.

There is a very important specification beyond just the 1 or 2 mile standard in that the lights on a sailboat must be properly configured (options shown here) If running the engine, refer to second drawing and either replace the white sternlight shown with a 360 deg. white light mounted at least 39.4" higher than the red/green sidelights (mine is on a pole at the stern, but could be at masthead), or add a 225deg forward-facing white "steaming" light on the forward side of the mast at least 39.4" higher than the red/green sidelights (most sailboats have that steaming light mounted at about spreader level.
VSC_NavLights 005b.jpg
 
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Likes: Will Gilmore
Sep 29, 2015
110
Oday 222 Lake N ockamixon, pa
I stand corrected. Hard to get a red or green light to be seen at 2 miles.
 
Jun 2, 2004
1,923
Oday Day Sailer Wareham, MA
Can be done, in fact required on vessels over 39.4', but at much greater power load than the 1 mile visible ones.

And, actually....... a small (under 22') sailboat can "get away with" going without the standard NavLights and just carry a white lantern (large Flashlight) that can be shown in time to avoid collision. I still have the full lights on my boat, don't want to take chances! I obviously so carry that large flashlight if out at night and would shine it on my sails if a boat was approaching that appeared not to see me.
 
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Likes: Will Gilmore
Sep 29, 2015
110
Oday 222 Lake N ockamixon, pa
The big guys can actually see you at night. I was in the shipping channel of the Raritan Bay, 2:30 a.m; and I thought I was alone in the dark. With the lights of New York City and Staten Island in the background, I never noticed a tanker entering the bay. I guess it saw my radar reflector; because all of a sudden it was high noon at my boat. No sweeping searching necessary. Bang, I was lit. So I guess, in these modern times, lights are necessary for small boats only. But rules are rules.