Mystery Wires

[sailorboy1]

I’m an engineer type and feel it isn’t acceptable to not know the systems on my boat. But .........Today while replacing my inverter/ charger I finally after having this boat for 7 years answered the question of 2 “mystery” wires I have come across over the years. In the past I couldn’t really figure out what these wires were so always just hooked them up as they were “because”. That now only leaves 1 circuit that I’m aware of that I dont fully know where it goes ( I know what it does but not how it is hooked up).

How many others can feel me on this.

[IdoraKeeper]

Yesss...the mystery wires. My boat has speaker wires installed in the engine space. Could the PO have felt that the yanmar noise was not loud enough and needed to be amplified? An experiment with active noise reduction? I know, they are below the waterline...sub sea whale mating calls! Perhaps active barnacle removal using hiphop music..I just don't know.

[US1Fountain]

I'm with ya! I bought my boat 6 months ago and have been working on it every day since. One of the PO had an elaborate sound system in it, but it had been removed at some point prior to my purchase of it. Who ever removed it, just cut wires and twisted and taped some together when they installed a plain replacement stereo. Probably removed a mile of wiring that lead to nowhere. I cant stand not knowing where every single wire originates and ends at. Ive removed countless cabinets chasing down those wires that are not connected on one end. Partially anal, partially safety conscience.

[GILow]

No way. Every Single Wire removed from the boat.

There is not a wire on board that I didn’t put there myself.

Not for everyone, I know, but the mess I found when I bought the boat left me with no other option.

[Warby12]

Originally Posted by GILow

No way. Every Single Wire removed from the boat.

There is not a wire on board that I didn’t put there myself.

Not for everyone, I know, but the mess I found when I bought the boat left me with no other option.

Agreed I stripped very satisfying. Its the fear that drives me

[Seabeau]

The several PO's left scads of wiring, never removing the old but simply disconnecting the old terminations and adding more. A veritable useless squirrels nest.

[CaptTom]

I brought a dock cart full of abandoned-in-place wire to the dumpster right after I bought the boat. I've been pretty routinely pulling out more ever since. Very satisfying.

[redsky49]

I am an engineer, and this has always been an issue for me.

In demolition work I have always called for:

"... XXX to be removed in its entirety... remove associated wiring back to source/panel. In no case shall any obsolete wiring be abandoned in place..."

This is generally observed by Contractors, but skimped whenever they think they can get away with it.

Remain ever vigilant!

[Mirage35]

The PO did extensive modifications and upgrades, documented everything, and gave me the documentation when I bought the boat.

I have not yet found a wire that isn’t in his diagrams, and I make mental thanks for his thoroughness every time I set foot on the boat.

[Cheechako]

Murphy's law of boat ownership: "Right after you remove that unused wire you will have a need for one exactly that size, routing and location for something new."

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by AnglaisInHull

The PO did extensive modifications and upgrades, documented everything, and gave me the documentation when I bought the boat.

I have not yet found a wire that isn’t in his diagrams, and I make mental thanks for his thoroughness every time I set foot on the boat.

The other that is: if don't remove and later try to use it as a messenger to pull a new wire through the old old will be so twisted up somewhere that it would pull out

[Madehn]

so i was crewing on a friends boat for an overnight "race"-- we had a great time and came in dead last- fortunately since we were the only boat flying a colorful spinnaker, our boat was on the front page of the paper anyway my friend had been removing every piece of spare wire he could find on the boat and was bragging about all of the speaker wire that he removed. All was well until we wanted to use the autopilot for the the voyage back home- nada zip nothing- so we had to hand steer all the way back as well turned out the PO had used speaker wire to wire the autopilot

[lifeofreilly57]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I’m an engineer type and feel it isn’t acceptable to not know the systems on my boat. But .........Today while replacing my inverter/ charger I finally after having this boat for 7 years answered the question of 2 “mystery” wires I have come across over the years. In the past I couldn’t really figure out what these wires were so always just hooked them up as they were “because”. That now only leaves 1 circuit that I’m aware of that I dont fully know where it goes ( I know what it does but not how it is hooked up).

How many others can feel me on this.

I'm currently in the midst of replacing the entire electronics package and in the process removing all the old abandoned wiring from several generations of changes on my current boat. WHen I got it there were quite a few extra wires with little or no purpose, the biggest issue is tracing them down to make sure I'm not pulling any needed circuits.
There is refrigeration,auto-pilot, a watermaker, generator, Heart charger/inverter system, separate high amp charging system, used to be a wind generator, SSB, VHF, water system and heater, etc, etc.
And no electrical print.
So I'm working it out and figuring it out and also drawing up a print so I won't be fumbling about mid-ocean trying to figure out why things are not working. Up until now, troubleshooting was an adventure, I'm hoping to make it less troublesome.