Wiring in a new dashboard

Computer engineer Stew Proud dusts off his wiring skills to update the switch panel in his Aquastar Ocean Ranger 33 motor cruiser

- Stew Proud

Since our retirement 16 years ago, our aft cockpit Aquastar Ocean Ranger 33 Lorna Adam has had a hard life, typically sailing about 2,000 miles a year. In between cruising my wife, Chris, and I have been undertaking a steady piecemeal refit.

We bought Lorna Adam in March 2000. She'd been fitted out in South Wales by a skilled carpenter whose day job was fitting out pub bars. As a result, the woodwork is very nice indeed, and the internal doors are of very old mahogany! We purchased the boat from a Dublin orthopaedic surgeon who admitted that he was good with a hammer and saw but, in his words, "fek all else".

Since 2013 Lorna Adam has been kept in the Netherlands and since 2016 in Oppenhuizen, Friesland. It is here that she has been undergoing the refit. Any work above my competence level has been done to an exceptionally high standard by Erwin at Hiemstra Scheepzaken, however there has been plenty that I am capable of, and renewing the dashboard electrical panel project was one of them.

Planning

The first step in the project was to decide what was required and if commercially made panels were available at a reasonable cost. Lorna Adam has quite a lot of electrical items, so many switches and circuit breakers were required.

I also wanted to include bilge alarms, volt meters, USB charging points and a 12V DC power outlet. Philippi panels came close, but at a price. I decided that I could design and produce a bespoke panel at a reasonable cost that would look good and fit all my needs.