Wiring Upgrade Sparks New Life in Trawler

It’s time for a progress report on the wiring upgrade being done on a CHB Trawler here at Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard.

I first blogged about the 42-foot vessel that was a “noodle factory” of wiring when it came to the yard early last month. You can refresh your memory here at Rewiring Order Out of Chaos, but in a clam shell here’s the story:

In this Before photo: The CHB Trawler came to Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard in great need of a wiring upgrade. Wooden battery boxes with multiple unfused connections hooked directly to the batteries. The old battery bank was a tangle of connections.

After 40 years and a number of do-it-yourself owners it was time for this classic old trawler to get a major wiring upgrade, reported Mark Lindeman, boatyard manager here at Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard. All of the primary and secondary AC and DC circuits are either being replaced or cleaned up, he added.

“This 1979 trawler had a multitude of wiring issues that made the electrical system unsafe,” continued boatyard Service Manager Chris Hawke.

Our experienced yacht technician Lance McDonough was charged with the task of making order out of the wiring chaos for the boat’s new owners.

First, Lance gutted all the electrical panels on the Taiwanese trawler. Then he removed the old battery bank with its tangle of about 27 spaghetti-like connections, and he built sturdy shelves for the new batteries to sit on.

Trawler in the Yard for Wiring Upgrade at Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard

“The entire DC system has been stripped and replaced with marine grade cabling and components,” said Hawke. “The house batteries were upgraded and a single start battery replaced two smaller ones. Overcurrent protection was provided for all switched and unswitched circuits in accordance with ABYC standards.”

This picture and the photo at the top show Lance’s clean, neat work on the trawler’s new DC power distribution system, explained Hawke. Seen immediately above is the new on-board battery charger, fuse and inverter/charger in the boat’s engine room.

The photo at the top shows the new panel board with its orderly red, yellow and white wiring that replaces the messy, convoluted wiring that was all directly connected to the batteries, Hawke continued.

“This provides a central location for terminating the DC grounds as well,” he said.

In this After photo: Yacht technician Lance McDonough installed an acid-proof battery box with marine grade cabling, overcurrent protection, battery switch and common ground bus.

These photos show just a small part of the rewiring work being done, as you will see with a revisit to my earlier blog.

“It’s a noodle factory,” said Hawke of the vessel when it first came to the yard. “There are lots of dead-end wires that go up to the fly bridge and half the battle is sorting out what needs to come out.”

A Taiwanese CHB Trawler is at Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard for rewiring of its AC and DC electrical panels.

Technician Lance is winning the sorting battle and is making elegant order out of the trawler’s former wiring chaos.

“Note the clean mounting of the components and tidy wiring,” Lindeman pointed out. “All new work is to ABYC standards for sizing, type and color coding.

“Whatever your boat needs we have the talent to do the job right,” he said.