Lights On!

Because of the coronavirus, I spent a lot of 2020 at home, sheltering in place and keeping socially distant. But I also spent a lot of time at my “second home,” my little J24 sailboat called Midnight Run.

Apart from the carpentry work documented in my previous post, the second-biggest boat project this summer was re-doing a lot of the electrical wiring and accessories on board.

I won’t go into details here since this post is already 3-months late, but suffice it to say, this project involved a lot of YouTube videos and internet research, as well as a few Amazon purchases (and returns).

Side note: I was amazed at how easy returns! I just dropped off the unwanted packages at my local UPS store (and they take care of rebooting and shipping).

I also went through a few pages of diagrams and schematics, trying to figure out what was best (and most importantly, correct). I had to keep reminding myself, “It’s only a J24, not a super-yacht.” I made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I’m pretty happy with the end result.

A quick summary of what I did:

Installed new wiring from the 32-amp hour AGM battery to a combo fuse box + bus bar, bypassing the old glass tube fuses in the electrical panel and opting for the cartridge style fuses in the new fuse box. I wanted to keep the original electrical panel (complete with “J24” labeling) but I liked the simplicity of the fuse box combined with a bus bar (which I used for my positive wiring.
Added an expanded terminal block for the connecting the wiring to/from accessories.
Installed two new cabin lights with new wiring in the main cabin. There is (or was) a light in the forward berth that I will eventually replace. But haven’t done it yet.)
Installed new wiring to the compass (which has a self-contained light).
Installed a new DC Plug and wiring. This isn’t functioning so I’ve done something wrong. Needs to be investigated.
Installed new illuminated switches on the electrical panel. These light up when powered on, so at a glance I can tell if any of the switches are on.
Connected (or re-connected/tested) the running lights at bow and stern, as well as the steaming light on the mast.

Like I said, this took me a few tries, and it’s certainly not perfect. But everything works (apart from the DC plug) and I’m happy with the safety of all the connections.

For the most part, I used components from Blue Sea Systems and Ancor, including heat-shrink marine grade ring connectors and butt connectors. In many places, I not only replaced the wiring but I also upsized the gauge (going a bit thicker, with 10-AWG from the battery to fuse box, and 12-AWG to many of the components and accessories). The running lights and steaming light are on the wiring that came with the boat (but I know the previous owner had just updated that wiring, so it’s still relatively new.

Here are some pics.