[C38] hanging lamp

[Tom Troncalli]

Hello David and group,

When I sawed a 4" hole in my cabin top for a vent, I cut out an 
incredibly heavy piece of boat with no voids between the inner and outer 
cabin tops.  I saved the sample cutout just because I am a pack rat.  
The cutout makes for a very heavy paper weight.

Surface conduit may be the best choice for cabin top retrofit wiring.  
It is very inexpensive and very easy to work with.

Your lighting wiring harness is hidden where the hull and deck join and 
can be easily tapped into but for a professional upgrade, the original 
harness should be replaced with marine grade wiring in a heavier gauge 
than the original 16 gauge.  I think I used 10 or 12 gauge when I 
replaced my harness.

The original harness started at the electrical panel and went counter 
clockwise around the boat at the hull to cabin top joint but dropped 
down at the forward v-berth lockers  where it then continued aft on the 
port side. to the galley or sail locker  My new harness was routed the 
same except I made my harness cross back to starboard at the engine room 
door to make a complete loop which gives less resistance than the 
original horse shoe shaped harness.  With a loop, every light can get 
electricity from both directions with very little additional wire being 
used which essentially cut the resistance to about half of what it would 
have been otherwise.  I have been told this system is OK on low voltage 
but against code on 120 volt circuits.  Maybe one of our readers can 
shed more light on this topic.  This technique is used on fire sprinkler 
systems in buildings so that water pressure is equally distributed to 
all sprinkler heads evenly.

The original harness also used crimped three way connectors where the 
wires from the light met the lighting harness.  These three way crimp 
connectors can eventually fail according to the experience of myself and 
several other of our members.  You can use butt connectors to make a 
three way connection but the steel rivet in the middle of the original 
three way connectors would eventually rust causing electrical failure.  
The original three way connectors proved to be unreliable in a salt air 
corrosive marine environment.

Some people have soldered their connections but they don't meet the boat 
manufacturer's code without enclosed junction boxes with internal wire 
supports or terminals or supports next to the junctions.   Where the 
solder terminates on the wire it can develop fatigue if the wire is 
allowed to flex and vibrate.  The wire can fail where the  wire meets 
the solder. If you do solder, all wires going to the solder joint must 
be supported near the solder junctions.

Properly done, solder is forever and has the least electrical resistance.

Tom Troncalli
Former owner #95




On 9/4/2015 6:36 PM, David Stoltz wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm installing a hanging electric lamp over the dining table and have a question. Does anyone know if there is a space between the inner cabin ceiling and the exterior cabin top?
> If so, I would prefer to run the power cord through there.
> Thanks as always.
> David Stoltz
> Andiamo #297
> MdR
>
>
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