June 2, 2016
Salty 50
Thursday
As a last-minute addition, the owner requested installation of a bilge high-water alarm, which I’d ordered a while back but had been awaiting time to install. Now was that time.
The system required a little float sensor to be mounted near or at the bottom of the bilge, a challenging prospect on this boat with the available access. The only way in was through the removable shelf containing the starter battery in the engine room, so I disconnected the battery and moved it aside, removing the shelf. The bottom of the bilge was juuuuust beyond the realistic extent of my reach, given the limits on head and shoulder room at the top, but I cleaned up the side of the sump a bit to accept epoxy and a fiberglass mounting block, to which I installed the sensor float in its supplied bracket. With the back of the mounting block buttered up, I pressed it into place at the bottom of the sump. I led the two small wires through some flexible conduit and brought them up into the engine room, leading them through a space at the forward end of the battery platform.
I prepared an opening for the little control panel (which contained the horn for the alarm) just forward of the battery switch, where there was convenient access for the required wiring. With existing obstructions, there was pretty much only one place the panel could go, and there indeed it went. I made the wiring connections to the panel, including the two wires leading to the float switch (which, when activated, would sound the horn), and then power and ground (which I led respectively through a fuse to the hot side of the battery switch, so the alarm would always be powered, and to a nearby negative distribution buss). I screwed the panel into place and neatened up the wiring, and this completed the installation. The power light on the panel was lit, as it should have been.
Total time billed on this job today: 1.5 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
45°, sunny. Forecast for the day: mainly sunny, increasing clouds late in the afternoon, high in the low 60s