12 volt lighting restored

When the ship's 60 AH battery was installed, i connected the main black and red cables up but no  lights were working.

Well you can still day sail without electrics, so did this for a month or so until there was time to get around to it. We had clamp-on D sized battery powered navigation lights just in-case of a late return to port.

 I'm no electrical guru, but have a book about it called "The 12 V Bible" by Miner Brotherton for a bit of theory and background reading. (Also long ago.. , i'd wired up my Endeavor 24, it was fortunate that a fellow yachty at Coff's harbor marina designed and advised on this)

I had visions of having to rip out all the wiring, get a proper switch board and start again but this would probably need some paid outside help, more money and take time. Only one Marine electrician was listed at Nelly Bay on Magnetic Island to service the marina yachts there. Maybe the yacht club's slipway staff or a contractor could do it?

First decided to have a go myself first and see if it could be done at home. Took inventory of what was in the boat already.  There was a simple homemade switch board with fuses, a hard to access space of spagetti wires behind it with 2 bus bars?? then wires going off to navigation lights, cabin lights and a dangling cigarette lighter socket.

Behind the switchboard..fuses, wires and brass bus-bars

Plugged a 12v car emergency flouro into the 12 volt socket, it worked!! Artificial light shone aboard for the first time!, so power was getting through the switch board..

Switch board corner - first light! Note fire extinguisher..

For safety sake, while working on the wiring i disconnected the battery. Reconnected for each lights test.

Navigation lights were down. So unscrewed the port navigation lights covers and twiddled the bulb around backed up with CRC spray. It soon shone bright red again! Repeated same for the stern light with success but the starboard light refused to go. For me it's somehow easier to see into the spagetti mass at night with torchlight, maybe it's more focused? The sunto orienteering compasses mirror helped too. Noticed a loose black wire hidden among it. There were also 2 bus bars one with mostly red wires and another with mostly black wires. Assumed red was positive and black negative. I stuck the loose wire into the negative bus bar, nothing. so tried the other bus-bar and the starboard nav produced green rays again!

Port and starboard Navigation lights come alive. With fore-hatch open it looks a bit otherworldly.

Two navigation lights as seen from the bow with hatch closed. Probably less confusing to others at night.

The stern light shines bright. 

The switch board. All three navigation lights come on/off with the "Nav" switch. "Cabin" lights up the boats interior.

The cabin lights covers came off and got the bulb and CRC treatment, but no luck. So back to the switchboard traced the cabin light wire and found its end was dangling free.. So screwed it into one of the bus bars and cabin lights were restored! There's no describing the psychological advantage of a warmly glowing cabin interior.

Twin cabin lights on the bulkhead shed light on the interior. Each has a small switch on it so either one or two can be on.

There's a bit more to go but that should be enough to brave a dark night out there on the sea.  Rigged a a temporary anchor light, a $2 solar garden LED light on the pulshpit.   A bit of cloth tape holds it together and in place. It makes it through to dawn..just, but is better than nothing until a better system can be installed.

I attached the 12 volt cigarette lighter socket  to the quarter berth's plywood ceiling. This socket is good for anything with a 12 volt plug.  Such as car mobile phone chargers and our small inverter.

The inverter is  150 Watt,  "Powertech" brand  from Jaycar electronics, about $50.
It converts  12v DC power from the ships battery into 240 volt AC power through a household socket on the  inverter's control panel. This means that any small rechargable electronic device can be kept going at sea. Mobile phones, tablets, smartphones etc can be re-charged and kept running. This is important with smartphones as they seem to have gone backwards on battery life, only lasting about a day. Old style mobiles battery life was about 3 days.

Inverter - lighter socket plug or use Alligator clips direct onto any 12v car or boat battery

Inverter - Front has 3-pin 240v ac household socket, green on light and switch. Side has USB charging socket.

The inverter also has a USB device charger on the side. With the 3 forms of recharging now on the Teria - (12v plug, 240v and USB socket),  all forms of re-chargers for small electronic gadgets bought aboard by the crew can be used. Other gadgets we bring aboard are LED camp lantern,  LED rechargeable torch, FM SW radio, a battery charger (AAA and AA sized rechargeable batteries- for head torch and hand torch) and last but not least - digital cameras.

The inverter is designed for car use, so it can fit in a cars can-holder and used when on the road. On board it's kept dry in a sealed ziplock bag until it's needed.