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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 250 Specific Forum

Shore Power

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lhooks
Deckhand

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USA
19 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/25/2003 : 19:39:27

Has anyone installed shore power in a 250?
If so, what breaker system did you use?
Where did you place the breaker system?
How and where were wires run?

Leonard Hooks 250WK #580
"Jessica"
Waco, TX

Edited by - on

Bryan Beamer
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1038 Posts

Response Posted - 02/25/2003 : 20:10:49

Here is a thread from a shore power topic that took place last year. This is a good simple system that would work for you.

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote> Shore power is great. The only problem with the way the dealers install it is they loop the outlets together with one common GFI outlet. A GFI outlet does not protect you from overloads it protect you from ground faults. Most marinas have a 30-amp 120-volt power supply to plug in the boats. If the dealer does install an in line fuse or breaker it is sized to the wire they run inside the boat. Usually a 20-amp breaker or fuses for #12 wire. This method will short you of 10-amps or 1200-watts of power that you may need one day. If they don't install a breaker or fuses this is the problem you could run into. Inside your boat they run #12 wire if you are running a 1500-watt heater and a 1800-watt double hot plate for cooking, on wiring that is only good for 2400-watts it could cause a problem. The wire will get hot and start to weaken over time and could melt before the breaker on the dock trips that could start a fire. I would recommend installing a small panel in the closet located in the head area. You can drill though the bottom of the closet and get to any location in front of the companionway through the bilge and the bench storage compartments. Run each outlet you install on it's on run of #12 wire from the panel and put it on it's own breaker (20-amp) this will protect the wiring and by plugging in appliances to different individual 20-amp outlets allow you to utilize the 30-amps (3600-watts) of feed coming into you boat. The electrical inlet can be installed forward of the port step and behind the head window this puts the inlet right above the panel. There is a 3" hand hole you can get to the hollow area behind the window. This location keeps the cord feeding the boat in front of the step getting in and out of the cockpit to the dock. Hubbell makes a good stainless threaded inlet any electrical supply house in you area should be able to get Hubbell products. Any small panel will work. Make sure you tie the two buses in the panel together with a small piece of #10 or bigger wire so you can use all the breaker slots. Use common house wiring methods to wire your boat and protect the wire in areas it can be easily damaged. <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>

Bryan Beamer
<img src="http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3dc23b3127cce9462f2858f2b0000001010" border=0>
Daylight Again
C250wk #495

Edited by - on

coldducks
Captain

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USA
342 Posts

Response Posted - 03/06/2003 : 13:03:17

last year we bit the bullet and had shore power, inverter, battery charger, extra battery and outlets installed in our C250wk. we also added a shoot through the hull depth sounder. these were without a doubt the best upgrades we could have done. i do not know the specifics on the breakers because we hired someone to do this work for us. but i do know that the only thing visible are a few switches located on the back wall of the aft berth. right beside the origional battery location. we decided that if we were going to have shore power installed, we might as well add the inverter so we would be able to have power when we spent the night away from our slip. i wanted to be able to run lights, coffee pot, tv and anything else i could think of. having the shore power alone allows us to run the cabin lights and everything esle at the dock without worring if the battery would drain. having an outlet or two was an added benefit. this year we are going to add the outboard bracket and the EZ steer system. (we still hate backing out of our slip) and hope this will give us a little more cotrol. good luck with your project.

COLDDUCKS
FANTASY #409 C250WK

Edited by - coldducks on 03/06/2003 13:07:14

Edited by - coldducks on 03/06/2003 13:09:06

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dannyhain
Deckhand

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USA
24 Posts

Response Posted - 03/06/2003 : 15:53:27

Leonard,
My 96 already had Shore power installed when I bought it 2+ years ago.I'm not sure if it was factory or not but I have two 20 amp breakers mounted on the ice box container wall. One breaker is wired to an outlet above the kitchen area and outlet in the head. The other breaker used to go to a hot water heater located where the ice box would normally go.I have recently removed the hot water heater and run the power to the rear port side of the boat where I installed an online battery charger. I felt comfortable working on the system myself but like I said the basics were already there.
Happy Sailing Danny

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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.