March 2, 2018
Jasmine 63
Friday
To finish up the mast step riser, I applied a few coats of gloss white paint, using a disposable sprayer for the job.
At the port aft cabin corner, I finished up the wiring work in the wooden trim box, installing and connecting the wires for a lighting fixture. I secured the fixture to one of the new wooden panels I’d made to fill in the fronts of these pre-existing boxes, and, once complete, I secured the wires for this lamp and the port running light in some flexible conduit leading along the cabin side and beneath the sidedeck.
Returning to the mast wiring conduit I’d begun earlier, I used the same hole saw I’d used for the original hole to drill down from above and provide a center point through the temporary epoxy plug so I could drill the larger recess from beneath. Then, with a 2-1/2″ hole saw, I drilled up from inside the head, eventually drilling out a plug about 1/4″ in depth to accommodate the mushroom head of the through hull fitting and leave enough threads above deck to secure the nut.
Satisfied with the setup now, I went ahead and permanently installed the fitting with plenty of sealant.
I finished up the wiring in the head compartment by terminating the ends of all the mast wiring circuits, using a terminal block to secure the boat end of these cables. Later, the mast ends of these wires could lead through the new deck fitting to the other side of the appropriate terminals, making connection and disconnection straightforward. I hid the wires in flexible conduit and led them along the edge of the bulkhead, then neatened up and secured all the wiring beneath the sidedeck in the little locker and leading aft through the main cabin.
With all the wiring connections made up on the port side, and the wires tightened and secured, I decided I had to make some order of the wiring area in the cockpit locker before I could continue with the wire runs on the starboard side. With the wiring left over from the bilge pumps in temporary disarray, the numerous long wire tails from the port side wiring, and a need to make some general order of things, I started by cleaning up the new wiring that I’d led through some chafe gear at the top of the bulkhead. I secured this bundle with a cushioned clamp, then pulled these wires out of the way for the moment.
Next, I resecured the battery switch and exisiting negative buss, which I’d removed while cutting out the panel openings above. This led to some minor changes in the position of these items and of the engine-side battery cable leading to the switch, which I repositioned a bit to make better use of the space for the wiring that lay ahead. From here, I focused for some time on re-securing and re-leading the wires from the bilge pump counter, switch, and alarm/switch panel that I’d removed earlier. Eventually I sorted these out, lengthened one or two of the wires as needed, and made the connections back to the panels as required, securing the panels and the wiring behind. This made a significant difference in the chaotic space and cleared things up for the new work.
I spent much of the afternoon terminating the cabin lighting wires (4 from the port side). I installed a small auxiliary negative buss, which I made up from a terminal block and terminal jumpers, to help spread out the negative connections, since there was only a 4-terminal buss in place already,and also a positive buss for the cabin lighting, which allowed me to connect all the individual lighting circuits (6 total including the yet-to-be-run starboard side) without overloading any single terminal. From the positive buss, I connected a length of larger wire that would eventually lead to the circuit breaker in the main panel. I set aside the remaining circuits from the port side–mast wiring and running light–for later termination, as I knew I didn’t have enough time left in the day to complete these now.
To wrap up the day, I pre-wired and installed the 12-volt outlet located in the main panel area, as well as the battery monitor, which required only two wires for the existing battery bank. I left the wires hanging long behind the panel, where they’d await securing and termination next time.
Total time billed on this job today: 8.25 hours
0600 Weather Observation: 32°, cloudy. Forecast for the day: Clouds, wind, some rain later in the day, around 40°