Midnighht Blue - The electrics & instruments

[Midnight Blue]

As the cockpit was going to look so smart I decided to replace the flimsy 6mm ply instrument console, and had already committed to stripping out the atrocious wiring, and rewiring everything except the cabin. The cabin fitout was always for another day. David Wroath was a font of knowledge on marine wiring and did a great job. All the bonding was renewed and provision made for wiring the cabin at a later date. The switch panel was renewed to include new fuses and switches, and I replaced all the instruments with VDO Ocean Line range, the closest match I could find to the old Smiths and that actually supplied a full inventory of instruments.

The old VHF aerial on the front of the coach roof was replaced with a new Glowmex fitting on the side of the coach roof. I stripped out all the defunct navgear, replaced with Garmin GPS and Icom radios, and found a beautiful Sestrel compass from Robinsons in Hamble. Although the original navigation lights were rechromed and rewired, the intensity is inadequate for modern boating so need to experiment with LEDs in the original fittings. But with new Morse controls and rechroming the “Hull number plaque�, that was a good job done.

[david timothy mark rhodes]

I am logging on each day to see whats next,an incredible job so super to see it done so very well and recorded so comprehensively, living on the island its also like a list of people I know doing some of the work, Wroathie as you say is a quite briliant electrical wizard, eccentric slightly but brilliant!!