Basic Boat Wiring

In short the wiring on a boat needs to be bigger tougher and more durable due to the corrosive effects of saltwater and salt air the pounding a boat at takes sea and the sometimes high level of vibration found on boats.

Basic boat wiring. This is a multi part starcraft aluminum boat restoration project. We start with batteries. It is much different than wiring for a car or a home. You got your wish in this new video series.

Plus these two conductors will carry the current of all your electrical loads combined so they are typically fairly beefy cables. This is what designers call a general arrangement and shows how the boat is laid out. The wiring of individual devices will usually be in parallel circuits with fuses or circuit breakers available at an electrical panel. Do you wish a pro would walk you through a simple system step by step.

Review of straightforward electrical wiring in a boat and boat overview. This is sometimes a long wiring run on a boat. Jeff cote is a systems design engineer and owner of pacific yacht systems a full service shop delivering marine electrical and navigation solutions for recreational boats. Make a drawing showing where the wiring will be.

Make a rough drawing of the boat looking down from the top. One last important piece of advice to remember about basic boat wiring is this. This restoration is a how to series that will turn this. If youre running wiring through your boats engine room abyc standards assume the temperature is 1220f 500c.

Electricity on boats can be scary mysterious stuff. If youre planning a circuit with 6 awg wire size it can safely carry 80 amps outside the engine room but only 464 amps in the hotter engine room environment.