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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 25 Specific Forum

Fuses

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monty0
1st Mate

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USA
51 Posts

Initially Posted - 03/29/2007 : 11:17:17

Monty

1977 Catalina 25 #66 SRSK "Prana"

Edited by - on

aeckhart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1709 Posts

Response Posted - 03/29/2007 : 11:56:50

Monty,

You've hit on one of the Catalina 25's bug-a-bears - eletrical wiring. It's very much like those old English sports cars, crappy wiring. None of the wiring on my 88 matched the wiring diagram, although everything worked fine until I pulled the wires out of the deck plug taking down the mast. We've all run into the same problem at one time or another.

I'm sure others will have some concrete suggestions. I would suggest though, that you pick up either Nigel Calder's or Don Casey's books on boat electrics. They are really good. You can then make informed decisons on what needs to be done and have some knowledge about how to go about it. One thing though, get over your fear of taking things apart. You'll have to do it sooner or later. You might as well start with the mast step. The plus side is that while it's off you can add CD's plate for additonal blocks and control lines.

Edited by - aeckhart on 03/29/2007 11:58:41

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 03/29/2007 : 12:49:57

One thing though, get over your fear of taking things apart.
Probably the best single piece of advice I have ever read on this forum.

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Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 03/29/2007 : 13:50:45

We just took an inventory of our '77's electrical wiring. There are some things that don't look quite right.

1) Should the charging wires from the outboard go directly to the battery? Ours do. But it seems like they should be going through the Perko switch so that we can choose which battery to charge. Those wires are also not fused. What size fuse should be used if it needs one? [ red] only if you want to be able to charge both batteries individually

2) We have two 12v cigarette outlets, neither of which are fused. I assume they should be fused. Any ideas what size fuses to use? probably, but not a huge deal. If they are on the panel the panel will be fused. Most cig plug male ends are also fused. I wouldn¡¦t let this be a show stopper

3) We don't have a yellow wire which would be for the spreader light switch. Instead our orange wire, which is for the anchor light, is tied into both the anchor light switch and the spreader light switch. I suppose there's not much I can do about that now, since I don't have the yellow wire. Maybe I should relabel the spreader light switch to something else and use it for our 12v outlets or something. First ¡V do you have spreader lights? Secondly, is your system switching the negative or the positive. A lot of masts were rewired over time and since the wires are "glassed" into the deck who knows what they ran in order to get current to the mast. Disconnect one of the two and see what happens

4) Anybody know where the ground wire connects to? It seems to disappear with the rest of the wires into the space between the inner and outer shells. I'm wondering if it ends up being grounded to the mast or what?what ground wire? You will probably need to be a bit more specific. do you know what the other end connects to?

5) Up at the maststep there is no electrical plug to be used to connect the anchor light or spreader lights to. The maststep itself is attached with four square headed bolts, which scares me because that means to me there are probably nuts under there, and I don't want to take off the maststep only to find I have no way to put it back on because I can't reach the nuts from inside the cabin. Hopefully I'm wrong about that. If I take it off, will I be lucky enough to see the orange wire and a ground wire, so that I can wire up an anchor light? If not, any ideas on how to find out where those wires are and how to feed them out to the base of the mast? We would like to wire up proper lights on the mast. Any advice there would be much appreciated. you should see a 3 prong connector in the deck. I am going to guess based on your description that the prior owner did not upgrade to anything crazy like a 4 prong. Those bolts are, in almost all cases actually screws. Your load there is straight down. The wires do not terminate underneath that step, they terminate to port diagonally about 8-12 inches off the aft end of the step. If you are up for it I would rewire the entire mast. Do a few forum and web searches on this site (left side and top side of the page) then come back here with questions.

6) Our second battery was scrunched in next to the first battery on the starboard locker under the seat. We're going to move it to the port, under the dinette seat. Anyone have pictures or advice if they've done that before? No rules here ¡V so feel free to move it. However you want your run from the battery to a selector switch, or the battery to a panel to be a single wire, so no splicing when you make the move. I don¡¦t have pictures but make sure you get battery boxes with covers and make sure that you strap them down with the straps provided with the boxes. Don¡¦t feel badly if this means you will need to drill a hole and use a screw to keep the strap in place. (obviously through the side of the settee not the hull) You can use a finishing washer to make it look nice.

7) I'd love any links on basic sailboat electrical practices, like how to join wires together, route them, fusing, etc.go to the links page and take a look at some of the books listed there. Specifically Don Casey's Boat Electronics Simplified (not the exact title) and Nigel Brotherton's "12 volt bible for boats." If you use the link provided the association also gets a couple of pennies on the dollar for your purchase. (hint to others„³while your copying and pasting the link from Amazon is helpful, it doesn¡¦t have the all the correct information for the assn to get credit)

As Frank mentioned DON'T be afraid to take stuff apart. You are dealing with a 25+ year old boat give or take a few years. There isn¡¦t a repair shop that just goes and grabs a new part off the shelve ¡V we have some factory parts and some parts that CD carries. Get used to the fact that unless it is electronic, it isn¡¦t coming with instructions and in most cases doesn¡¦t come with the associated hardware. You aren¡¦t dealing with a Ford Taurus where every Ford dealer has the parts and a mechanic who¡¦s done the job a hundred times over. Do a lot of research here and other forms of due diligence prior to [/red]

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.