Help with Shore power install on 2002 X please

[Steve Smith]

I had a good weekend- Saturday on the Hudson, and Sunday in the driveway finshing a bunch of upgrade projects on the 2002 X Catigale

I installed my swim ladder, my enclosure hardware, installed my VHF antenna, achnoring light, and windex illuminator on the mast, adjusted my rigging for the year, and wired most of my shore power.

I couldnt get the 16 gauge 110 VAC wire down from the shore power connection down to the galley. I spent two hours with fish tape and couldnt even get the tape down from the switch past the hull chine into the bilge. I tried both going up and going down.

ANyone have any hints for this? My hands hurt from all that work!!!

cheers Stephen

[Chip Hindes]

Mine was done by the dealer, and he didn't try to hide it all behind the panel. Maybe it's not possible?

Anyway, it exits the upper panel and is exposed for about three feet on its way to the seat just behind the galley. It's hard to describe. If you're initerested I can try to get you some pictures or jou can just stop by and take a look.

[Billy]

Steve, the route to get even a small wire to the galley seat is by way of the chainplate. It's the old "go around your elbow to get to your thumb".

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

Yes, go forward along the port side cabin channel above the galley, then turn left and head down behind the galley at the channel between the windows where the chainplate bolts are. You can get all the way down there. I have 4 wires there at this point.

Pull off a few white caps, go a step at a time and use a slat steel fish tape.

[Ken Orthner]

Haven't tried it yet myself - but somebody suggested putting a steel bolt or washer on a string - running it through were you want the wire - then using a srtrong magnet along the outside to move it - sounds to me like it might work - has anybody tried it and how does it work out?

[Jack O'Brien]

I've done the steel washer on a string with a magnet thing in various places and it has worked to some extent. It is, however, frustrating as it fails and must be restarted time after time after time. Part of the problem is the roughness of the fiberglass between hull and liner.

I've also fed along the inside bottom of the deck liner to the chainplate area and then down to the bilge. A flat fishtape works as does flat plastic strapping stuff which is much more flexible when you need to go around hull chines and obstructions.

There are so many different wires that need to be run from the fuse/switch panel at the top of the companionway bulkhead down to the area of the seat aft of the galley that, in hindsight, I should have run them like it sounds Chip's boat has. That is, don't try to run between liner and hull. Run in the open from the deck liner to the seat/galley. Get a plastic cover from Home Depot for exposed house wiring and put that over the wires. Will be easier and less likely to damage the wires and easier to run more wires later.

[Steve Smith]

Well, thanks to Billy's tip I got my main wire in (main shutoff to AC distribution panel near galley. Route was along liner and down the chainplate area as he wrote.

It was so hard pulling the wire through the chainplate area Im thinking of dropping back and going with Chip's route.

If the wire is hard on the hull, its bound to chafe through, and chafe and 110VAC dont mix too well on boats...Im going to be a lot happier with wire I can look at and replace as necessary.

Thanks for all your help on this!

sps

[mike]

I've pulled several wires (16 and 14 gauge) through this route and don't recall having that much trouble.

--Mike

[mike]

I gave one last shot at pulling the shore power wires through to the chain plate area..it was really tight but I got it through finally, Used metal fishtape.

I didnt like the way it felt so I pulled through a few feet extra and .....I had stripped the case of the wire down into the individual conductors just pulling the wires against some unknown resistance.

Strange... I guess each boat is different, because I had no problem pulling wires through here. Likewise, a forum member here was able to pull some battery cables between the bottom liner and hull (to go from the aft dinette seat to the aft galley seat), and I couldn't even get my bare fishtape to go in more than an inch or so.

--Mike

[dclark]

I find it a little strange also. I've pulled a bunch of wires through that way. What I always did was this:

With the fuse panel removed, feed the fish tape (or coat hanger) between the seperation in the liner and poke around until you can see it and grab it from the hole where the panel is. Then pull the wire(s) thru. Now you have wires from the panel coming out between you liner somewhere around the aft end of your galley. From there it is easy to tuck the wire between the liner and let it drop between the lower liner and the hull while working your way forward. Now you need to get the fish tape run from the access hole of the shroud chain plate and out the split in the liner. This is problably the hardest part. I find it easier to feed the fish tape in through the access hole and out between the liner then it is to go the other way around. You will need to get your fingers between the liner and feel for the fish tape. You can actually seperate the liner quite a bit to get your fingers in. Once you have that you are home free. Just pull the wires through and then drop them down into the bilge are from there.