Sea Sprite 28

There wasn't anything really wrong with the old electrical panel -- all of the switches worked, as did almost everything that was connected to it.

But...

A peek behind the panel showed that an upgrade was a good idea. So I spent a few weeks looking for a new panel. I ended up finding a Blue Sea Systems panel on eBay for $204. The same panel, at that time, sold at rock-high-prices-West-Marine for somewhere between $400 and $500.

The most difficult part of this job was enlarging the hole. Here's a piece of what I cut out. Notice the thickness and the layers. (That coin is a quarter, by the way.) There are lots of good things to say about the Sea Sprite 28, and one of those is that it is sturdily built.

The old panel was fed by a thin negative/ground wire from the battery. I selected a thicker guage to better handle the load.

The real challenge here was to figure out how to route the wires neatly and to end up with just the right amount of slack. By the way, I found the high-end Anchor double-crimping, ratcheting crimper invaluable in this part of the job.

The new panel allows me to monitor current drain and check the voltage levels of each battery with the flip of a switch. I can also add new circuits if/when that is ever needed.

I also worked on upgrading most of the boat's electrics. The steaming/deck light, halfway up the mast, was beyond hope. Here, the deck light has been pulled from its housing.

The new steaming/deck light is made of plastic, but I'm hoping it'll see many years of service.

I needed to replace the lens and lamp of the anchor light, which is located at the top of the mast.

The night light of the new compass needed to be connected to the electrical panel.

I also needed to connect the GPS to the panel, as well as to the VHF radio and the external antenna.

Drilling the hole for the antenna mount also showed me how well-built the Sea Sprite is.

Another eBay purchase. I paid $150, which is about 1/2 price.

I replaced all of the lights in the salon.

Compared to other jobs I did, installing new lights was among the easiest.

I didn't need to replace the old plastic berth-type lights -- they both worked -- but I think this is a big improvement. Notice the oil-lamp in the background. For all the new fixtures I went with chrome-plated brass. For one thing, it matched the chainplates.