new boats

I tend not to go on about boatbuilder habits, there's plenty of other folk do that. In general we find that boatbuilders (and their installers) do a pretty reasonable job, and in different circumstances to waterside dealers like us. We've seen some dubious installations, but also seem many impressive jobs where the installer has clearly been proud of his or her work and a craftsman when it comes to laying wiring. No doubt some boatbuilders would be able to say similar things about other installers.

This week we were asked to investigate a fault on a new boat where the navigation system wasn't working. Long story short it was nothing more serious than an apparent fuse holder problem. And here comes the 'but'. The network fuse had been installed in the rudder compartment where, to the uninitiated, it would only probably be found after painfully tracing wires to this least expected location for a fuse. Even then, it had been securely cable tied after being wrapped in a few layers of standard black insulation tape, rendering it almost impossible to find in a hurry.

The mere fact that it had been tightly wrapped and tied was the problem; the spring loaded fuse couldn't spring enough, preventing proper electrical contact of the terminals.

Now imagine this fault shows up at sea, you're then into either an uncomfortable and lengthy fault finding exercise or a limp home, having to look out the front to see where you're going...

A very simple fit would have been to install the fuse (or even better a circuit breaker) at or near the chart table/switch panel, in effect changing the fault finding/correcting process a very simple exercise.

Moan finished! Have a great weekend.