New electrical panel

Matt has been working diligently on this weekend after weekend after weekend... and managed to avoid getting shocked. (Not that there wasn't a spark or two to keep things lively.) We had a good laugh over all my countless boat journal entries in which the sentence "Matt worked on the electrical project" appears. Except for some minor aesthetic details though, we think we can count this project as done. (That is, until we add some new electricity requiring device on board...)

These are photos of the old panels. Matt combined the two into one continuous panel and brought it out parallel for easier access.

Here it is. Matt created the new panel so that it unscrews and hinges down to allow access to the somewhat chaotic looking electrical innards. The red switches are for the two battery banks, the center panel is for the items that run off DC, and the left panel controls the AC stuff (electrical outlets and battery charger).

I think we share a similar sense of humor with the previous owners. This little sign had been posted up with the old panel, and we always puzzled over it. What language was it? (Swedish maybe? But why not German?) What did it say? Where had it come from originally? When we removed it for the electrical project we found an English translation on the other side - 'Warning: do not shut battery circuit while engine is running." But we decided to put it back up the way the original owners had. It's just more fun that way.