Off the bridge and on to the front hatch

With the lower and upper helm wiring just about complete, it was time get down in the engine space and connect the new bridge 12-volt supply wires to circuit breakers and complete the new supplementary ground wire to the batteries.

We mounted the 40-amp circuit breakers in the 2x4s that reinforce the deck under the siding glass door. It made a nice neat installation since it can't be seen by the casual engine observer but is close enough so that the circuit breakers can be reset, should they ever trip.

These little circuit breakers are marine-rated and have a tiny trip lever that can't really be seen unless the circuit trips. The battery supply is on the left and the cables to the upper and lower helms are on the right.

We went up to the bridge make one last check of the connections and then turned on the marine VHF radio, the chart plotter and the radar. No one answered us on channel 9 but the chart plotter did eventually get a fix which showed our position to be across the river in Middletown. Oh well, we are inside a metal shed.  The radar showed that the river was free of traffic. Then, while we keyed the radio, we sounded the air horn. Beautiful! We got a nice honk and the other electronics worked perfectly. That wouldn't have been possible before we added that extra capacity 12-volt wiring..

We made some voltage measurements and noticed that  the voltage at the "BATT" terminals of the ignition switches was around 11 volts but the accessories (radar, radio, horn, etc.) were getting 13+ volts DC. It seems that the ignition circuits for both sides were still connected only to the boat's original wiring but the accessories were getting full battery voltage via our new wiring.. We made up two new connections between our new +12-volt feeds and the BATT terminals of  the bridge ignition switches.

That was exactly what was needed. The voltmeters (that are on the ignition circuits) now read as they should. Glad we poked around that wiring before moving on to our next project.

On Sunday, we wanted to devote some time to cleaning up the bridge and give it a thorough vacuuming with our little shop vac.

We did that but before we closed up the upper helm, we added one more electrical connection: a DC power cable for our Acer Netbook computer.

Why would we ever need a small computer on our bridge? Well, probably never because we do have a chart plotter, but our little Acer is loaded with our absolute favorite navigation software, PolarView. (Thank you, Active Captain for recommending it.) We seem to remember that the PolarView software was about $30 (including any charts that we care to use) and we opted to invest another $12 in a USB-type GPS receiver that is only a little bigger diameter than a silver dollar. How will we mount the netbook? No idea right now but we'll look around and see what we can find.

The five foot long Acer power cable stores nicely behind the radar and since there is circuitry that changes 12-volt DC from the boat's electrical system to whatever voltage is required by the Acer, we added a switch to turn that power off when we aren't using it.

Damn! Now that we're posting the photos, we notice that the switch is crooked. We'll fix that because it looks really bush league that way.

Hey, we love gadgets, especially on our boat.

Next project: replacing the front hatch

Replacing this hatch has been on our radar for some time. It's original equipment on this boat and the latches were in sad shape. Last summer, it started to leak, so replacing it became much more important.

We weren't looking forward to getting the old hatch out but after removing 14 one-inch stainless screws and a little lifting, it came right off.

The headliner in the v-berth is stapled up around the hatch opening and amazingly, it wasn't in bad shape. The adhesive (if that's what it was) around the outside of that hatch was uneven but still had a little tacky quality to it.

On closer examination, we found a crack on the edge of the raised section on which the hatch is mounted. You can see it when we zoom in on this photo.

That is very likely where the leak was coming from and we'll repair that quire easily.  The problem is, where do we find a replacement hatch?  The Silverton Owner's Club tells us that that hatch is no longer made. We're going to turn the search over to Frances, who can find anything n the Internet.

In the meantime, if you know of any sources for a hatch with these specifications, please let us know.

The old hatch is marked: Taylor Made # 66016

22-1/2" X 22-1/2" inches.