(major snip)
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

Around 1980 Bill Lowman decided he wanted both a radar and a VHF radio
on his 60 year old "gillnetter" the "Zig Zag". A real, wood, sal****er
workboat, used every year in the Puget Sound salmon season.
Quick look confirmed bad feelings. The boat was wired by the "knob and
tube" system, with #14 solid, rubber and cotton covered wire. Much of the
rubber and cotton had turned to crud and fallen off. Whoopee. Bill insisted
that no rewiring be done. He had done most of it himself, and was proud of
it.
I asked him if he ever had any problems with the wiring, he said "sure,
but it's easy to fix! All the splices are just twisted together, and all you
have to do is untwist them, scrape them a little and twist them back
together."
So as not to upset the historical value of the original wiring, we (I
don't like to say "I" here) used, shudder, wire nuts to connect the radar
and the VHF radio to the vessel. Bill died last year, but the boat was used
by him right up to the end. He lost use of the radar and the VHF at times,
but as he said, it was simple to fix. All the wiring, splices, screw-in type
house fuses and all were right out in plain sight.
He did say the for best reliability, it was good to scrape or file the
rust off the alligator clamps at the battery posts nearly every season.
Old Chief Lynn