1980 Cal 2-27 electric issues.

[kevinbott651]

Good afternoon,

I am a new owner of a 1980 Cal 2-27. This was a big leap from my Sunfish! Bought her in July of 23 and got alot of great use this summer. It is on the hard until spring. I'm trying to get things cleaned up and get to know the boat better. I replaced the masking tape on the panel with labels in the photo below and would appreciate your thoughts on that as well as the electronics.

Question 1: DC Panel. (see photo) I have six breakers and have no clue what #5 is. I could not determine what was on that circuit. The prior owner could not recall either. There was no label when I bought it. Behind the panel it appears to be factory wired and tied in the budle with # 1-4. (number 6 was the oddball and I can tell it was wired after the build).

Question 2: DC Panel. (see photo) Does anyon have a Link / Resource to replace these switch/breakers? The top one trips frequently when all of the cabin lights are on. I've seen some in other boats with micro lights on the end of the switch. I know the breaker is weak as I swapped with another w/ same amps and the problem does not follow.

Question 3: The Depth Finder powers up, but when I purchased the boat both through hulls were pulled and plugged from above. I didn't think swapping them on the water was a good idea in case they did not seal. (Not certain, maybe this is done all of the time?) On haul out, and inspection from below, both were sealed over with silicon and new bottom paint was coated on it. Thoughts on returning them to function? That scares me!

I greatly appreciate any advice - Thanks!

Kevin
1980 Cal 2-27
Port of Pepin, WI

DC Panel

PXL_20230820_003109001.jpg (2.06 MiB) Viewed 15000 times

[Capn ken]

Being the current owner of an ancient cal 29 ,my recommendation is to rewire the boat to ABYC specs .a couple of great electrical boating books available at the library , 2 spools of 12 gauge marine wire and the appropriate paraphernalia plus a blue seas panel will see you right . Happy new year and yes you can do this . Cheers Ken

[SailingChris]

I'm guessing that your through-hulls were not sealed over with silicone because nothing will stick to that. More likely epoxy?

Sometimes depth sounder transducers have been mounted inside the hull, firing through the hull. One way to do it was to created a little tube filled with mineral oil, with the tube secured vertically inside the hull and the transducer mounted in the top of that. I have also read about simply mounting the transducer inside with a sound bed of silicone. Either way, it's firing through the hull and might not work with a cored hull. And for myself, I'm very leery of using silicone generally because it is impossible to completely remove from the surface--it contaminates. In any event, if your sounder is working, mounting the transducer inside eliminates one more hole through the boat, which is always a good thing.

Chris Campbell
Cal 20 # 1220, Martha C

[rcvesselstyn]

Congratulations on the new boat! The 2 27 is a good one. Chris is correct, I do not know anybody who has a depth sounder transducer that's mounted through the hull anymore. There are still plenty of knot meter sensors that people pull in and out of the through hull fittings though. It sounds like these have been glassed over. I would recommend going over them very carefully to make sure they're structurally sound. It seems odd to me that they would not have removed them completely and plugged the holes. I just finished cleaning my son's newly purchased Cal 25. One of the POs had plugged and glassed the through-hulls for the head but left the one for the knot meter. As far as the electrical wiring Maybe you have been lucky and have a panel that has not been corrupted by POs. On my son's 25 I just finished tearing out all the wiring except the running lights and the cabin lights and we will have to start fresh. That's actually better than the boats I have had, where I have just had to tear out everything and start over. At least for me trying to problem solve 40-year-old corroded wiring was more trouble than just replacing it with new. Just a note, I just fixed the things that are safety problems and are annoying me and let the bulk of it ride until I have spare time. Going out for a sail is always more important. I think it took me 6 years to finish the electrical wiring. Oh wait, I still haven't finished it.

[allen]

When I read your description of the the depth sender it sounded like it was just removed and the plug was inserted and then the plug was painted over. That would be perfectly normal. If that is the case, you could just remove the plug and insert the depth sender in its place. But this probably too simple an explanation and you likely would have known if this was the case. I take my speed transducer out after every sail and reinstall before the next sail. The plug gets painted because I remove them before leaving the boat at the yard. Probably not what is going on but felt compelled to mention it just in case.

On the breaker tripping, you could replace the lights with LEDs if that it the only problem with the wiring.