Wiring: Adding a feed to the flying bridge

[pschauss]

I want to add a direct feed from a spare breaker on my main panel to a bus on the flying bridge to power my VHF and fish finder. From what I can see the wiring to the bridge runs along the starboard side of the cabin, entering the starboard engine compartment via grommet and then runs up through the aft support pillar for the cabin top. What are the standards for supporting the wiring in this path? Does it need to run through a conduit for any portion of this route?

Thanks,

[PeterPalmieri]

There should be a conduit behind your galley

[pschauss]

How far forward does it go?

[Tony Meola]

Peter

If you remove the pull out hatch in the V berth it exposes the back of the electrical panel. You will see where the wires exit the conduit. It exits from that point to the bulkhead in the engine compartment.

As an fyi you can snake wires up either side of boat to the bridge. You are going to need to use a snake of some sort to get the wire from the engine compartment up to the bridge. I left a very thin wire in that channel on both sides of the boat just for that purpose.

Before you start snaking wires, take a look in the over head you might find unused wiring up there. It should run to the DC panel but not wired to a breaker. I had at least 3
Unused wires on mine. I replaced a couple of them and used them to help pull through my new wire.

If you find you can not snake the wire through the pc conduit that runs to the Dc panel then if you pull out the fridge, you will see the conduit. You can run the wire on the outside of the pvc and just use wire ties to hold up the wire.

[bob lico]

next time tony remove head ceiling just some # 6 ss screws and you can see the top of pillar raceway and the sidewall of the bridge. i have an actual panel on bridge dedicated to electronics and lighting isolated from entire boat wiring (lightning protection) .

[Tony Meola]

next time tony remove head ceiling just some # 6 ss screws and you can see the top of pillar raceway and the sidewall of the bridge. i have an actual panel on bridge dedicated to electronics and lighting isolated from entire boat wiring (lightning protection) .

Bob

Does that bridge circuit run off a totally separate battery from the house battery?

Does it ground to the common ground or did you set up a separate ground?

[bob lico]

never, never, never put bridge electronics on an ENGINE STARTING BATTERY.use house battery or even better yet dedicated battery off triple charging battery charger that would have an isolating diode that will isolate it from other battery banks.i have conferred with the very best of American on lightning we do it on all military air bases and the one fact remains land or water that strike wants to take the path of least resistance to salt water.so you do everything you can to divert the strike to the engines (dual make good heatsink) then to shaft and out to the water. a bonding plate will put a huge hole in the boat so let engine take the hit but most of all use outriggers to bleed off the difference of potential.so getting back to the original question you have to isolate that $15,000 dollar Furuno system at all costs.

[Tony Meola]

Bob

I got it, forget my question in the other post.

[pschauss]

next time tony remove head ceiling just some # 6 ss screws and you can see the top of pillar raceway and the sidewall of the bridge.

My boat has two removable panels about 15" by 15" in the cabin overhead so that I can get access to that area by simply removing two screws in each. I am hoping that will be sufficient for me to route the feed wire from the bridge to the pillar raceway.

[pschauss]

It turned out that the 15x15" panels were too far forward for me to reach the support pillars so I had to take down the entire starboard side overhead panel. Even with the panel down I could not really see place where the wire bundle passed up through the starboard pillar. It felt like there was some sort of restriction in there which kept the new wire from just slipping through. The fishing tape worked fine, however. I used the same method to thread the new wire through the conduit on the starboard side of the cabin.

My next step will be to connect both ends and test.

Thanks for all of your suggestions.

[Tony Meola]

Peter

Not sure if you have a stand up head or not. On mine with the Stand up Head, once the over head is down you can see the wires coming up out of the pillars.

[pschauss]

Tony,

I have the Sport Fisherman, so no standup head. I stood on the lower helm seat. Once I had the ceiling down I was able to fish the wire through the pillar from the top after a couple of false starts. Getting the ceiling panel back in place without a helper is always a challenge. Having the cabin door to rest it on (my Sport Fisherman has the aft cabin bulkhead like the FBC model.) was helpful.