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oups.com...
As you can tell from my posts, I'm new at owning a boat and am not
really that handy. So bear with me.
I recently bought a 12ft aluminum Jon Boat. It looks like someone was
trying to turn it into a fishing boat at some point. There are signs of
a fish finder mount on the back.. rod holders.. etc. It also has a nav.
light on the stern (that's the front, right?). The light doesn't work,
but is wired through a pvc pipe that goes to the back of the boat. I
have no idea what the guy was trying to do, but there are a lot of
wires in the pvc pipe and I'm not sure what their intended purpose was.
At some point they come out of the middle of the pvc onto a panel of
some sort, and then some more come out a little farther down. Maybe he
was trying to do a live well or something? Anyway, I want to do away
with all of the unfinished wire work and pvc pipe. But I would like to
keep the light in case I stay out past dusk at some point. What do I
do? Run a couple of wires from the light back to the battery and attach
them to the battery operate? Do I need to protect them from water,
somehow, or is it that simple? I wouldn't mind mounting a switch for
the light to the back of the boat as well. Is it as easy as it seems it
would be? Run a couple of wires back to the switch, and from the switch
to the battery? Anything special I need to be looking for?


First of all, the stern is the back and the bow is the front. And, you'd
better get comfortable with idea that by the time you're done pimping out
this boat correctly, it'll be worth more than your house.

The previous owner might've had a bow-mounted trolling motor, or a live
well, as you said. When you're planning the wiring, you need to first think
about battery location, and this doesn't always mean "the most convenient
place". You're gonna have 3 heavy things in the back of the boat: You, the
motor, and the gas tank. If you're the only one in the boat, the bow will
ride high at certain speeds and it may mess up your visibility. The bow can
also catch the wind and make for some interesting experiences that you don't
want to know about. If you think you'll be the only person in the boat
sometimes, try and mount the battery up front. Because the bow bounces more
than the stern, the battery should be protected in a battery box, and bolted
down to something solid if possible.

For navigation lights, you need the red-green fixture up front, and a white
light mounted on a pole in the stern. The taller the pole, the better,
because it'll put the light further above your field of vision and not blind
you so much at night. These poles pop out of sockets so you can stow them
when you're not using them. Even so, they're annoying at night and they
attract bugs, and if you're out fishing in a relatively traffic-free place,
you'll probably want to turn off the stern light and leave the bow light on.
So, you need to install separate switches for the two lights. You'll want
marine switches that can deal with moisture, and they need to be mounted in
a panel like this:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...roductId=59944

That one's not waterproof, but there are others available, or you can build
something to shelter the panel from rain, spray and beer. Make sure there's
room for enough switches to operate the toys you don't know you want yet,
but will want two days after you install the panel that's too small. Radar,
fish-cam, VHF radio, music radio, live well, depth finder, courtesy lights
so you can see which toe you just stabbed with a fish hook, etc.

The PVC pipe is a good idea, to protect the wires from fish hooks, feet,
fish fins, etc. But, your boat may have hollow molding along the sides, and
you can sometimes snake wires in there. The wires themselves don't need
protection from water, but the connections at the ends definitely do. Any
decent marina will sell an assortment of crimp connectors, which aren't
waterproof, but can easily be cut off and changed over the years as they
corrode. Heat shrink tubing also helps to protect crimped or soldered
connections. Finally, look at the way electrical wires are routed into
houses. They create a drip loop - a loop of wire shaped sort of like a
teardrop, which leads rain down the loop instead of into the pipe. You need
to duplicate this in some places on your boat, but on a smaller scale.

If the existing wire looks ratty, replace all of it. Wire's cheap. Be sure
to install extra wire for the things you don't know you want yet. Some of
the wires should be heavier for the trolling motor. I'm guessing 10 or 12
gauge, but someone else here can correct me if I'm wrong. 14 gauge is fine
for the lightweight stuff like lights, radio, fish finder.