Routing Electrical Wire 26x - What type of black magic does this require?

[Signaleer]

Ok, who's done it... and F'n how?

I would love to rewire the entire boat. Did you have to drill access holes? Or... ?

How did you do it?

Yours in discontentment,

Ed.

[Duquette5]

Recently did my 19. I used 60# mono... tied off to one end of the old wiring and pulled it through. I pulled it all back towards the fuse panel.This allowed me to pull the new wiring back through to the opposite direction. I used the mono because I had it on hand and figured it wouldn't break...

Good luck!

[opie]

Go to Home Depot or any supply store and buy an electrical fish tape. You can go anywhere with that tool.
Other hints are you can run wires down inside the wall from electrical box and extract it inside hull below.
From there you can get to both sides of boat.
Another hint, I installed led surround lighting all around boat insides at the seam between upper and lower fiberglas skin. No drilling or holes, just stuffed wires up into space behind seam.
Access to mast wires easy with fish tape. No black magic required. And with low amp draw led everything, there is really no need to cuss Roger's choice of zip line for all his factory wires. They are quite acceptable and kept the boat price down.

[Be Free]

I've replaced most of the wiring in my 26x and it was not easy.

I used a fish tape for most of it but the thing that really helped was pulling the plugs that cover the access holes for the various fittings. The fish tape would often get stuck or bind but when either the tape or the wire got within reach of one of the access holes I could pull it back to where it needed to be.

It is frustrating, but it is doable.

[Be Free]

On the subject of the original wire choices: the original wire is sufficient, but since I was replacing it I used slightly larger wire to reduce the voltage drop, particularly for the runs going up the mast and I left a little bit more slack than the original runs to make working on fittings easier.

[Signaleer]

Thanks all!

Right now, I think we will just let the existing wire in place.

How much less current do LED's require? do you think?

I mean, conversationally? 2 X the light? (length of time?) I'm now going to go try to source LED lights

Ed

[Jimmyt]

All of your interior LED lights will probably draw less than a single incandescent. I changed mine out on my 26m. Current reduction is dramatic.

[ris]

Change to LED bulbs or new LED lights. Even change the running lights and anchor light to LED.

[Be Free]

The stock masthead and anchor lights are 10W each.
The interior lights are rated at 18.4W each. The LED replacement for the 1141 bulb is 3.6W.
The running lights are 5W each.

The LED replacements are a little pricey but they usually use about 25% of the power of the incandescent bulbs.

[hart]

So this post is a bit stale but I’ll add a trick I’ve used in my X since I didn’t see it mentioned. For spaces tighter than a fish tape will travel, I tie a couple of washers to a string and shove them behind the liner. Then I use a powerful magnet wrapped in something like a microfiber cloth from the cabin side of the liner and drag the washers through. It takes patience. Once you get the string run all the way through, tie/tape your electrical wire to the string and pull it through. Pro tip: drag another string with the wire and leave it in the liner. Next time you have to pull wire/replace the string is already there and ready to use.

[Jimmyt]

Cool idea!

[BOAT]

So this post is a bit stale but I’ll add a trick I’ve used in my X since I didn’t see it mentioned. For spaces tighter than a fish tape will travel, I tie a couple of washers to a string and shove them behind the liner. Then I use a powerful magnet wrapped in something like a microfiber cloth from the cabin side of the liner and drag the washers through. It takes patience. Once you get the string run all the way through, tie/tape your electrical wire to the string and pull it through. Pro tip: drag another string with the wire and leave it in the liner. Next time you have to pull wire/replace the string is already there and ready to use.

Black Magic

[Russ]

So this post is a bit stale but I’ll add a trick I’ve used in my X since I didn’t see it mentioned. For spaces tighter than a fish tape will travel, I tie a couple of washers to a string and shove them behind the liner. Then I use a powerful magnet wrapped in something like a microfiber cloth from the cabin side of the liner and drag the washers through. It takes patience. Once you get the string run all the way through, tie/tape your electrical wire to the string and pull it through. Pro tip: drag another string with the wire and leave it in the liner. Next time you have to pull wire/replace the string is already there and ready to use.

That is a fantastic idea. Wish I saw it sooner. Would work for the mast until you hit that foam stuff.

LEDS are the way to go. ALL my LED cabin lights use less power than ONE OEM incandescent bulb. I have an ammeter that I used to measure.

Roger's electricians didn't care about polarity, so you may have to switch that.

LED STRIP lighting is another story. Each LED has a tiny resistor and they are not very efficient. Much energy is wasted in heat from the resistors. You can tell this when the strip is rolled up on the spool. It gets HOT. Heat=wasted energy.

I have some LED strip lights on the boat. RGB strips with an RF controller. This allows me to turn them RED at night. But what it ALSO lets me do is DIM them. I found dimming them 10% greatly dropped the amperage draw by 70%. This sweet spot gives ample light and acceptable current draw.

[hart]

That is a fantastic idea. Wish I saw it sooner. Would work for the mast until you hit that foam stuff.

LEDS are the way to go. ALL my LED cabin lights use less power than ONE OEM incandescent bulb. I have an ammeter that I used to measure.

Roger's electricians didn't care about polarity, so you may have to switch that.

LED STRIP lighting is another story. Each LED has a tiny resistor and they are not very efficient. Much energy is wasted in heat from the resistors. You can tell this when the strip is rolled up on the spool. It gets HOT. Heat=wasted energy.

I have some LED strip lights on the boat. RGB strips with an RF controller. This allows me to turn them RED at night. But what it ALSO lets me do is DIM them. I found dimming them 10% greatly dropped the amperage draw by 70%. This sweet spot gives ample light and acceptable current draw.

It would work for the mast. Hmm. Of course my X doesn’t have foam but still.

I have a growing list of repairs/mods. LED lights is on the wishlist portion.

[BOAT]

I am afraid of black magic - I think I will stick with the old fashioned way. I don't want to disturb any evil spirits.