110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
Blue Teal | Monday, July 22, 2013
After a vacation, I got back to work on the wiring, spending most of the day on various wiring runs and connections. Before starting the wiring, however, I began by installing the newly-arrived clevis to the end of the gearshift cable, allowing me to make the final connection for the gear lever.
I ran a cable for the owner's new RAM mike (a remote mike for the VHF radio) from the VHF's future location (at the port forward bulkhead beneath a shelf) to the starboard side of the companionway. Though this device was designed to be used with an external connection port, the owner's plan was to keep it all inside the companionway, and a good thing, since the supplied cable was just barely long enough--with all the twists and turns and convolutions inherent with any onboard wiring run--to reach to below the swing-arm mount, which seemed a good location for the connector anyway. Later, I'd install a clip to hold the microphone itself, which had its own length of coiled cable. I left enough cable at the VHF end to reach the radio wherever it ended up being mounted.
In the same general area--at the bulkhead--I installed wiring for the VHF's power supply, along with power and speaker wires for the new stereo system. I left ample slack and bundled the wires up for safekeeping for the moment; I connected the other ends to the nearby circuit breaker panels as applicable.
I ran most of the remaining bulk wiring, namely those circuits for the three main cabin lights on the starboard side, as well as two lights in the forward cabin and the leads to the sidelights (red and green), located in the sides of the cabin just forward of the bulkhead. Many of the wires had to run from the electrical panels on the port side across the mast beam and down to the starboard side, so once I'd led all the wires I bundled them and secured the bundle with cable clamps. (I'd remove and reinstall this bundle later when the time came to install the cork on the overhead here.)
On the port forward bulkhead light, which was located very close to the electrical panels, I made up the final wiring connections and installed the light to allow me get the wiring length right off the bat. As I went, I connected all the cabin light wiring circuits to a terminal block, allowing a single wire connection to the main panel breaker. Before time ran out in the day, I'd completed all the wire runs except the mast lighting wires (three circuits), and had made up many of the final connections for the new circuits, with a few remaining for another day.
Total Time on This Job Today: 8.25 hours
