Stereos, Bushings and Electrical Panels. Oh My!

This weekend was very productive. On Friday I had a spare hour and was able to replace the broken bilge pump. 

On Saturday I dove into electrical. This is really new to me so it was a bit of trial and error. The first task was to wire up a second 12V DC panel because the original one is out of connections. To do this I ran an 8 awg cable directly from the positive battery terminal to the box. I then led another 8 awg cable from the battery to a negative bus. I then ran a 10 awg cable from the bus to the panel. 

After getting the fuse board working I was very excited and just had to wire the sound system to it. I had chosen the exact same size and brand speakers that where originally in the boat to try to make for an easy install. This worked well. I simply removed the old speaker, attached the wires and then applied TotalBoat Seal to keep any water out before screwing them into the cabin. Once the speakers where installed it was a matter of tracking the wires back, threading them through a hole behind the sink and attaching them to the proper wires on the stereo. I then repeated these steps three more times for the other cockpit speaker and the two cabin speakers. The sound system sounds amazing and will be waterproof for a very long time thanks to the Seal. 

On Sunday a Tabor alum named Aidan came by to help. With his help we where able to properly mount the fuse panel. It looked really good once it was mounted. Then, he helped me drop the 85lb rudder. To do this we tied a piece of rope through the head of the rudder post, knocked the bolt out, then I ran down below to lower it down. The reason for removing the rudder is two fold. First, I wanted to inspect the condition of the rudder post which is known to corrode and break. The rudder post was quite corroded but most of the pitting was not too deep and I feel comfortable keeping the rudder until at least next season. The other reason was to fix the play that was in the steering. The rudder could move about half an inch at the bottom due to a worn out bushing. Not ideal, especially when going over any sort of wave. In the photos below you can see how the original rudder bushing is very worn away. Aidan and I sanded the corrosion off the rudder post and installed a new bushing. To install the bushing I used TotalBoat Seal because of its adhesion and sealant properties. It is essential that water cannot get past this ring as it will further corrode the rudder. The seal will be perfect for this, along with securing the bushing in place well. This should help with the lateral play in the steering. Overall a really fun a productive weekend working on the boat. Stay tuned for next week!