I'm in the process of doing a bit of rewiring, additions to, and general neatening of the electrical system.
I've come across a red wire that is attached to the engine directly beneath the crankshaft. It then ran forward, the wire was long enough to make it to the mast, and had some green tape wrapped around it (close to the fuel tank and maybe only a foot of it was taped.
Any thoughts on what this could be? Everything has been working fine for 3 years now... My only guess is it relates to the old Nav instruments (which have since been removed)
We have a universal m25
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Alex & Caitlin
S/V Windswept
Vancouver, BC
1985 C-36
SR/FK M25
If it was wired to your engine some one was using it as a ground wire or negative. They may have been grounding the mast for some reason, not a great idea as if it was hit by lightening...... not the best path back in side of the boat.
Ross & Joanne
Wavelength
Saint John NB
RKYC
C36 #658 TR 1987
Sounds more like a half-hearted attempt at grounding the mast. One thing I know, 30 yeas of previous owners can equate to many miles of abandoned wiring!
Jason V
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Thanks guys, any reason other than lightening protection that I'd want to do this? The wire itself was 14awg..... Seems pathetically small if this was some sort of a lightening bounding system. Also, isn't it better to ground to a keel bolt?
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Alex & Caitlin
S/V Windswept
Vancouver, BC
1985 C-36
SR/FK M25
14 gauge wire from the mast to the engine would vaporize in miliseconds if lightening took this path, then lightening would look at your keel bolts and say "I just came a mile down from the sky, the six inches to those keel bolts look soooo much better now". I'll go into lightening protection one day (hint: it's never about prevention and always about minimizing damage). Best guess is that 14 gauge wire is a radio ground plane of some sort. Loran (remember that?) needed a bit of a ground plane as well as SSB/Ham.
Nick Caballero
Retired C36/375IA Mk II Technical Editor