Wandering wires

Dec 4, 2019
25
Beneteau 423 Jacksonville
I have a 2004 Beneteau 423 (third owner +) and recently was tidying up some wiring in the aft cabin area. There is a group of wires I found in the area behind the battery switches labeled "Autopilot crse computer", both red and black, 8 gauge. They were cut off and carry no power, I thought. I traced them towards the engine compartment, and back past the start battery and thence aft into the rear storage area. The "I thought no power" part was revealed after removing some - a lot - of the electrician's tape to find one was still hot, attached to the house battery switch. (By the way, is there any electrician's tape left in France? there's so much on the wiring harnesses.)
To my point: As I sorted out the remaining wires in the bundle, I saw several were labeled with forward boat circuits - lights in the forward head, and other circuits that weren't located in the aft section. Any ideas why these are back there? Oh, as far as we can tell, the "course computer" was re-wired with a take off from the batteries leading aft. It has its own fuses, on both positive and negative legs - again, a French mystery.

Thanks!
 
Jun 8, 2004
2,841
Catalina 320 Dana Point
Probably be labeled "ordinateur de cours de pilote automatique" if it was the fault of the french, I bet it's American electrical tape. AP's are usually dealer added like floor mats or undercoating.
Could be all the cabin lights are on 1 circuit, how many switches (circuit breakers) on the panel, if only 1 they're all on same circuit. Maybe wired "point to point" and they started aft.
 
Dec 4, 2019
25
Beneteau 423 Jacksonville
Good point. All the cables are labeled in English, so probably a US build. As for the lights...I’ll check.