Running electric wire? - BR20

[globetrot]

Does anyone have experience running an electric wire from the bow to the stern of a BR20? Is it possible to do it through the access hatches in the gunnel?

The goal is to keep things as clean and out of view as possible.

I have decided to add a bilge pump to the stern sump and am contemplating battery placement. One possibility is to put the battery on the floor as far forward as possible and under the GRP infill. This is a largely unused space and relatively protected from the weather.

I recall @Graham W did something like this except for a depth sounder that was conveniently located just above the battery. https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?page_id=17&URL=https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,1442.msg10543.html#msg10543


Any pictures or advice you have on running wire is greatly appreciated!

[Graham W]

Louis,

When my BR20 was delivered in 2010, it had the yard’s battery and fishfinder option.  As you say, the battery was in a bracket under the white foredeck infill.  The cables (power and transducer) were then led back to the fishfinder which was fixed on a bracket towards the back of the centreboard capping.  The cunning part was that the fishfinder cables were hidden in a routed-out channel on the underside of the wooden capping, just where the capping meets the edge of the centreboard casing on the port side.  You wouldn’t know that it was there unless looking for it.

If you have a router, you could do something similar all the way to the back of the capping and then from there down the back of the centreboard casing and through a gland into the ballast tank.  And then through another gland out into the sump? 

[Matthew P]

Hi Loise

As usual, Graham's advice below is sound. 

You might also be interested on ideas in an ancient thread at  »Swallow Yachts Forum »Technical  »Battery power and position.  This includes a description of a plywood "console" I made for my BR20 that housed GPS, batteries, compass and other bits of kit into one removable unit that slid over the rear of the centre board cover. It also doubled as a support for the foldable sleeping platform that fitted behind the GRP infill and between the side decks over the centre board.

On a later development I fitted solar panels to the rear deck (using heavy duty Velcro) and and cable connected to a regulator in a MkII console box on the centre board cover and a large battery fitted on the cockpit floor in front of the centre board case.  The cable was routed from the solar panels through the vertical slot (inlet for the asymmetric buoyancy system) beside the mizzen mast mounting and through all the compartments under the port gunwale to exit through a gland in the round plastic hatch cover under the foredeck.  I fed the cable through using a flexible tent pole to fish it through the inaccessible spaces between hatch covers. Graham's route through the ballast tank is simpler!

Matthew
BR17 Tarika
ex- BR20 Gladys GRP




         

[globetrot]

Louis,

When my BR20 was delivered in 2010, it had the yard’s battery and fishfinder option.  As you say, the battery was in a bracket under the white foredeck infill.  The cables (power and transducer) were then led back to the fishfinder which was fixed on a bracket towards the back of the centreboard capping.  The cunning part was that the fishfinder cables were hidden in a routed-out channel on the underside of the wooden capping, just where the capping meets the edge of the centreboard casing on the port side.  You wouldn’t know that it was there unless looking for it.

If you have a router, you could do something similar all the way to the back of the capping and then from there down the back of the centreboard casing and through a gland into the ballast tank.  And then through another gland out into the sump? 

Graham W,

Thank you for your reply! I am familiar with the routed channel because my boat, built in 2021, also has this under the centerboard cap, although I do not have a depth sounder.

Unfortunately, this isn't an option considering where the wire will need to terminate > in the sump, where the bilge pump will be located.

One solution is to put the battery in the starboard locker and have a through-gunwale water-tight cable fitting (https://www.watski.dk/daekskontakt-11btx). This would reduce the distance traveled by wire and keep the battery secure, but it would also sacrifice valuable lockable storage space. So not an ideal solution.

Therefore I'm trying to figure out how to leverage the space under the GRP infill and do it properly.

Hi Loise

As usual, Graham's advice below is sound. 

You might also be interested on ideas in an ancient thread at  »Swallow Yachts Forum »Technical  »Battery power and position.  This includes a description of a plywood "console" I made for my BR20 that housed GPS, batteries, compass and other bits of kit into one removable unit that slid over the rear of the centre board cover. It also doubled as a support for the foldable sleeping platform that fitted behind the GRP infill and between the side decks over the centre board.

On a later development I fitted solar panels to the rear deck (using heavy duty Velcro) and and cable connected to a regulator in a MkII console box on the centre board cover and a large battery fitted on the cockpit floor in front of the centre board case.  The cable was routed from the solar panels through the vertical slot (inlet for the asymmetric buoyancy system) beside the mizzen mast mounting and through all the compartments under the port gunwale to exit through a gland in the round plastic hatch cover under the foredeck.  I fed the cable through using a flexible tent pole to fish it through the inaccessible spaces between hatch covers. Graham's route through the ballast tank is simpler!

Matthew
BR17 Tarika
ex- BR20 Gladys GRP
         

Matthew,

Thank you as well! I am very interested in your experience routing the cables through the gunwales. I realize this is not the easy solution, but it may just be the cleanest if it can be done correctly.

I still need to inspect the gunwale's hollow parts to see what obstacles I would encounter. On both the port and starboard sides of the stern are two large water-tight hatches. When removed, there is ample space. I wonder if I could somehow run a cable from there to either of the round water-tight hatch covers found on both sides of the gunwale, where the shroud meets the deck.

[Graham W]

You might also be interested on ideas in an ancient thread at  »Swallow Yachts Forum »Technical  »Battery power and position.  This includes a description of a plywood "console" I made for my BR20 that housed GPS, batteries, compass and other bits of kit into one removable unit that slid over the rear of the centre board cover. It also doubled as a support for the foldable sleeping platform that fitted behind the GRP infill and between the side decks over the centre board.

I’m copying Matthew’s approach of having the electrics integrated as far as possible in one place and also completely demountable.  Except that I’m moving the whole thing to bench height and installing it under the BR20 foredeck.  It’s a ‘Gadget Wall of Shame’, in which various fun but mostly unnecessary gadgets sit on a removeable marine ply bulkhead, facing the helm and just under the aft part of the foredeck.  Most of the  items that the helm doesn’t need to see (the battery, fuse box, NMEA interface and multiplexer) are attached to the forward side of the bulkhead, hidden from view.

This protects the gadgets from big feet, and allows them to be removed in one piece and locked away at night.  Virtually the whole network of gadgets communicates wirelessly with each other in the manner described in the ‘Expensive and tired old technology’ thread.  Not through Bluetooth, as I had originally expected, but using NMEA broadcast over wifi, courtesy of a Digital Yacht multiplexer.

I couldn’t cut the umbilical cord between the depth transducer and its Tacktick wireless transmitter, so the latter is permanently wired up just ahead of the centreboard case.  The depth transducer also measures speed through the water and this data can be read on a Tacktick wireless display and, thanks to NMEA over wifi, also on the Sailproof tablet and any other mobile device that is logged in to the system.

The oligopolists seem to have it in their heads that combined GPS/depth sounders need the capability of identifying the species (and possibly the sex) of individual fish 200m under the hull, and are producing gadgets of increasing complexity and expense to do so.  All I really need from my depth instrument is a clear and accurate warning that I may be about to go aground and this set up provides that.

The gadgets on the bulkhead?  All waterproof (at least IP66) to some degree:  I’ve retired the elderly Garmin and replaced its 5” screen with a Sailproof 10” Android tablet - see https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,3311.msg18021.html#msg18021.  There’s also a solar charge controller for the battery; a tide clock; a Bluetooth speaker; a Bluetooth weather sensor; 12V sockets for powering wired gadgets like my ballast tank pump and masthead anchor light; and USB sockets for charging mobile devices.  There’s also a Digital Yacht multiplexer that broadcasts data from my Tacktick system (wind, depth, water speed) to my Android tablet system, where it is incorporated on screen with charts from apps like Navionics and Memory Map.

Matthew’s original post on his installation can be found here https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,483.msg2865.html#msg2865.

[Graham W]

Here (below) is a final revised version of the instrumentation and electronics bulkhead for my BR20 that I mentioned above.  It’s almost entirely self-contained and demountable so that it can be stowed away in a locker or taken home at night.  It’s fixed upright just under the foredeck, sheltered from knocks and the weather.

The front multiplexer is a second-hand Shipmodul Miniplex-2wi.  This collects all the data from multiple sources and broadcasts it over wifi to mobile devices (Sailproof and iPhone).  The idea being to detach my boat from the clutches of the hardware oligopolists now that I have stopped using my old wired Garmin GPS/fishfinder.  I can continue to see data on my excellent Tacktick wireless and solar-powered displays (depth, wind, speed and course over ground, waypoint data, sea temperature and a whole load of derived calculations like true wind, VMG and VMC) as well as on my mobile devices.  And of course to choose among several excellent (but fairly cheap) charting apps on my mobile devices which also make best use of all this data.

Depth and sea temperature now comes from an NMEA 0183 transducer which is the only data cable that needs to be plugged separately into the bulkhead, using a Bulgin plug and socket arrangement.

One of the most useful instruments for UK waters is the large waterproof tide clock on the left of the bulkhead.  I never had anywhere to mount something like this on my open BR20 before now.

On the back of the bulkhead are a 288Wh Tracer lithium battery, fusebox, GPS antenna, Tacktick NMEA wireless converter and MPPT solar charge controller.  It’s quite heavy because of the 3kg battery, hence the large grab handles on the front and another on the back.