Chuck,
Many equipment manufacturers insist that NO cable splicing be done EVER. No
method is without potential trouble and often splices, after corrosion, are
fire hazards.
Steve

"chuck" wrote in message
news
Terry K wrote:
When I got my Tyler 29, the nav lights, among others, were wired with
juke box wire and wire nuts.

The boat is / has been used in mainly fresh water.

I decided to keep an eye on it, call it an empirical study. I made
sure I had some wire and nuts available, and waited for it to sink the
boat, so to speak.

Portents abound, prophets wail, but they remain out in the wilderness,
unfulfilled, with no light save my nav lights, for 9 years that I know
of, and who knows how long before I got the boat.

Doom and gloom forcast nowithstanding, I wait, prepared for
catastrophe. I give them a wiggle every spring to see if their nuts
will fall off. Not yet. The now blackened copper visible has oxidised
as much as it will, like a copper penny, still trustworthy.

It all makes me think there is a plot to keep non-millionaires off of
the water, by any means, including terror tales, establishment
regulations inspected and enforced or not, and who knows what I do not
know.

I did rewire the bilge pump, which has never seen "active service," as
if waiting for the bombers in the tx hut isn't active enough. I can see
if the nav lights are on or off, so will know immediately if another
bulb gives out, or even if a wire disintegrates. I may install led
lamps, and keep waiting to the inevitable wire nut disaster popularily
forecasted.

I said "fresh water," remember? And, I do not route wires where their
ends are likely to get wet. If I do work for others, I work "to spec",
for price or bling standard.

Cobbler's shoes?

Terry K


Interesting post, Terry. Do you know when the boat was built and whether
the wiring is original? It would be useful to know how many years the
existing wiring has been in place.

Of course, in fresh water service, except for vibration, the environment
is not a whole lot different from that experienced by conventional AC
wiring on land.

I wonder how many boats so wired are out there. It would also be
interesting to hear experiences with wire nuts in a sal****er environment.

Chuck

Steve Lusardi wrote:

Many equipment manufacturers insist that NO cable splicing be done EVER. No
method is without potential trouble and often splices, after corrosion, are
fire hazards.
Steve


Steve I second that!

My boat was built in 1979 someplace around SF Bay, CA. Has spent its
whole life on the west coast. I flipped on a mast head light about the
second year I owned my then 25 yo boat. Nothing on the tri color.

Then the fun started. After a few days the short turned out to be a
SPLICED wire about half way between the panel and the mast step. That
problem wire was nested inside a tangle of about 9 other wires. Plus
the splice "looked" great. All shrink tubed and all. Just took a
long time to find the damn thing. So I opened the splice. Ugg! The crud
went about three inches up the strands on either side of the splice. I
found two other wires spliced in that same rat nest.

Lesson learned: Never splice wires unless you want to make somebody's
life very miserable a few years later.

Solution: I cut the splice out and put in another so I could go
sailing...................................... later gutted it all. The
wire needed to be sized up for the run anyway. The boat manufacture
sized the mast head lights for a 10% volt drop. I though, and USCG/ABYC
too, that 3% volt drop was better.

Thy shalt not splice........... please.
Bob