So I just bought a Mac X....

[Drifter]

What I will do with the new one (presuming it fits) is use the chain to hold it in place when it is sitting at home. The strap I'll wind in and then cover the whole winch and strap with a plastic bucket, to keep the rain and sun off it.

A tighter cover can increase rust by trapping moisture but a loose bucket should be OK.

I'm about to do a search here; guess I can ask too - anyone have a wiring diagram for the 26X?

The engine starts and the tilt and trim works... And that is it. Absolutely nothing else electrical works.

Maybe the light on the mast works, when it is plugged in? Dunno, I still have not even attempted to raise the mast.

I've ordered 50 ft of tinned marine wire, both black and red. Probably not enough but it's a start

I think I pretty much need to rewire the whole thing but it would help to know how it's supposed to be wired!

I recall reading the original wiring was never great and not proper marine wire? Knowing the circuit and routing would help a lot though.

The PO has fitted 2 batteries, far away from each other. My understanding is that the original design is a single battery next to the galley? I have a battery selection switch and would like to set 2 batteries in that location but I'm not at all sure how to wire it so that the engine can charge both etc.

It also has 2 ventilation fans, blowing from the head and galley to the cockpit, plus an electric toilet. There's a light above the table and another above where the stove would be, if I had one. None of these work at present. There's a whole bunch of wires in the toilet cupboard thing, no idea what they are.

I could do with an electrician but you know, the Borneo thing

[Drifter]

Yes, a very long thread, sorry

[NiceAft]

Yes, a very long thread, sorry

Don’t apologize. Is it your fault that we have a welcoming group of sailors.

For each challenge you offer up, do it in a new thread, that’s all.

[Be Free]

I can give you a good idea what the original wiring looked like.

The battery was connected to a small fuse panel. I'm pretty sure it was a 4 position panel with glass 5 amp fuses for the entire run of the boat. All of the branch circuits were wired with 18AWG lamp cord. All of the ground wires were all connected to a common "buss bar" consisting of a machine bolt with a hex nut on the end.

One circuit sent power to both of the cabin lights. The wiring runs between the cabin top and the cabin liner.

One circuit was for the navigation lights (bow and stern). The wires running to the stern light are mostly running between the cabin liner and the port side of the boat. You can usually feel them if you reach up under the lip of the top liner. The bow light also runs on the port side above the galley and around the anchor locker. Both are harder to access the closer you get to the lights.

One circuit was for the anchor light. It runs over the cabin top just like the cabin lights but comes through the top of the cabin on the port side of the mast step. It was originally connected to a marginally acceptable flush mount connector. I think it had three pins. I'm not completely sure how this was originally set up. I'm pretty sure a previous owner had made a small modification on my boat to the wiring for the steaming light. The wiring for the steaming light follows the anchor light up to the base of the mast but I'm not sure how it was originally wired. Both the steaming light and the anchor light continue up through the mast.

The wiring for the engine should be running through the bilge to the battery. Mine runs through conduit, but I'm not sure if that is original or not.

Any other wiring was probably added by a previous owner.

[Russ]

As the post above states, factory wiring, especially on early X models was fairly subpar. No marine grade wires and a cheap 4 switch panel.

My 26M at least had marine grade wire, but same 4 switch panel and bolt for common ground. No attention to polarity, so when replacing incandescent bulbs with LED I had to reverse many of them.

As you have doubts about it all, I would suggest you rewire the whole boat. Make a list of things that need 12v power and map out a plan.
Decide if you want an A/B/Both main battery switch and if so, run a panel off that.

Maybe do some reading up on marine wiring here

[Drifter]

Yeah, I think starting again from scratch is the way to go, though I'm nervous of fiddling with the engine wiring.

I've found some diagrams online for a 2 battery setup but I have no idea what or where the current wires are, so somewhat apprehensive at getting started on it!

Just ordered some inspection hatches, as I have a feeling i'm going to have to cut the liner here and there. Was hoping to avoid it and will if I can but everything I look at seems entirely hidden, while other places have big bird's nets of red and white wires, none of which I have the slightest clue about.

There is some kind of board, maybe a fuse thingy, but all marked in Japanese. I'll take a look at it (it's bolted down inside the forward port hatch under the dining seat). If it seems robust could re-use it but in a more sensible location.

Same with the red and white wires. Will take a good hard peep at them, see if the quality is there, if they're actually tinned. If so could re-use and save a fortune

Welp, best start a new thread on the wiring stuff... but perhaps I'll wait until the wire I've ordered arrives...

[Tomfoolery]

Since the factory didn't provide an outboard, the wiring for it would have been done by the engine installer. My OB cables run through the stern berth 'bilge', if you want to call it that, to the small battery compartment abaft the galley. All the other wiring was factory, and as already pointed out, used high-end options like a stainless screw and nut for the ground bus, and that top-quality switch panel with glass fuses, plus bottom dollar lamp cord for the light circuits.

AFAIK, the boats didn't come with an anchor light; just the masthead (steaming) light, with side lights (single bow unit) and stern light. Two cabin lights completed the system. The plug for mine had two round pins. I added an LED anchor light on top of the mast, and also added a diode in the masthead light wiring, so by reversing the polarity of the two conductors up the mast, I get either masthead or anchor light. The reversing switch is next to the new 12V panel I used to replace that old OEM panel. One switch on that panel is for both masthead and anchor light, of course.

I kept the old wiring in the cabin, as it was still in good shape. It's not marine grade, but it's not deteriorated either. Maybe because the boat lives in fresh water. It's very difficult to replace most of that wiring anyway, from what others here have stated, so I'm not real inclined to bother with it.

[dlandersson]

My two batteries are together under the forward starboard table seat.

The PO has fitted 2 batteries, far away from each other. My understanding is that the original design is a single battery next to the galley? I have a battery selection switch and would like to set 2 batteries in that location but I'm not at all sure how to wire it so that the engine can charge both etc.

[Drifter]

I have one battery there, the other is... ahem... in the rear berth, on the starboard side.



Thing is I'm planning on fitting a kicker motor on the starboard side, so it's not gonna be balanced like that, even if I could accept sleeping next to a battery and the extra weight up front.

By the way, do you find the weight affects the 'planing' of your boat?

[Be Free]

The answer is, "It depends...".

If you have one 12v "marine" battery, it won't make much difference where you put it. I have 4 6v deep cycle batteries. That's a lot of weight an it will affect your trim.

Battery placement is a balancing act where you will be playing several competing requirements against one another.

• Weight should be as low as possible, preferably below the waterline. Very important!

• Weight should be placed to keep the boat "on her lines" (level for/aft and port/starboard).

• Large battery cables should be as short as feasible. The large cables run to the engine so that means the battery should be close to the stern.

• Our boats already tend to be stern heavy due to the large engines we put on them. Heavy batteries put closer to the bow help to balance this out. That conflicts with short cable runs. Splitting batteries port and starboard also increases the length and complexity of the large battery cables.

Too much weight in the stern will definitely make it harder to plane. Too much weight in general will make it harder. You may have mentioned your engine earlier, but I don't remember what it was, but my 40hp will get the boat up on the bow wave but never completely in front of it so I'm always a little "bow up" at full throttle even if I move some of the "movable ballast" (read crew) up to the v berth.

[Be Free]

One other important (flooded lead acid) battery requirement: it must be in a battery box and it must be fastened so that it cannot move around. Not really placement considerations but you mentioned sleeping next to one in the aft berth. That is not a great place for a battery: too close to the stern, too high, and possibly not enclosed or properly fastened. Be careful.

[Drifter]

Both batteries are in cute little boxes, with little chimneys for off-gassing. Quite adorable really, and both seem to be good Panasonic batteries that are holding a good charge despite being shipped around and sat alone for a long time.

The engine is the classic BF50A, which looks a bit scruffy but starts from stone cold very easily.

The boat is nowhere near being launched yet but the engine sounds OK. I'll do a compression test soonish, though I'm already feeling confident in it. The oil is ridiculously clean. The Japanese boat dealer was able to ask the PO some questions, but sadly the answer was "Don't know" to virtually everything, as he's an elderly guy who bought it from the elderly guy who had it from new.

Seems he pretty much never sailed the thing, and he thought the long pole was for the mast-raising thingy too. How to use it he has no idea and has never tried.

On the bright side I know the oil was changed last year, and looks like it was changed yesterday, and the impeller was last changed 3 years ago. So that's nice.

[Drifter]

I added an LED anchor light on top of the mast, and also added a diode in the masthead light wiring, so by reversing the polarity of the two conductors up the mast, I get either masthead or anchor light."

Erm... To me an anchor light is a white light. The red and green are navigation lights. So what is a 'masthead' light?

[Tomfoolery]

I added an LED anchor light on top of the mast, and also added a diode in the masthead light wiring, so by reversing the polarity of the two conductors up the mast, I get either masthead or anchor light."

Erm... To me an anchor light is a white light. The red and green are navigation lights. So what is a 'masthead' light?

A “masthead light” is the official name for what many people call the “steaming light”, mounted to the front of the mast or other structure that faces forward, white, covering an arc of 225 degrees (+112.5 degrees to -112.5 degrees from the centerline), same as the side lights. It’s only used when the boat is under engine power; side lights without a masthead light indicates to others that you’re under sail (or human power) with no engine running, making most other boats the give-way vessel.

Small power boats usually combine the masthead light with the stern light by using an all-round white light on a stick. Can’t do that with a sailboat, especially since you need to be able to turn off the masthead light when under sail in the dark.

“Side lights” are the red and green lights that, along with the masthead light, gives other boaters your orientation. Little boats like ours can have a single bi-color light at the bow (often called the ‘bow light’), but larger boats have separate lights, usually mounted fairly far back at the pilot house, and with light boards to accurately block one color when the other takes over when viewed from the front. Or little bi-color lights aren’t so good at that.

An “anchor light” is an all-round white light, mounted as high as reasonable, and is only used when anchored in other than a designated anchorage. Larger boats are actually required to have two of them, one lower than the other, but that threshold is waaaay higher than our little boats; think freighters.

And of course, the “stern light” is white, rear facing, and covering an arc of +/-67.5 degrees from the centerline. It takes over where the side lights and masthead light fade out. White light only means you’re looking at the stern of a boat, or a very small boat under human power, which makes most other boats the give-way vessel.

For that matter, an anchor light is also just a single (for small boats) white light, so again, other boats are the give-way vessels.

[dlandersson]

No, but truth be told, "planing" is not something we do much. Sailing, kids on tubes, etc.

By the way, do you find the weight affects the 'planing' of your boat?