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A rainy Monday night was perfect for some dedicated work on the new electrical panel. The old panel pictured below was functioning… but made me nervous with years of additions and several wires directly tied to the common hot input.

Not to mention that it is difficult to trace anything in this fairly simple electrical system in the current configuration.  After some research and a chat with the in house electrician at Washington Marina I decided upon a new Paneltronics Waterproof DC 8 Position Lighted Rocker & Fuse Panel.  I went back and forth on 4, 6 and 8 circuit panels and finally opted with the 8 to adequately separate my intended circuits and preserve the possibility of future expansion.  Also for the panel I wanted to add some battery monitoring capability with a Blue Sea 8003 Voltmeter and a Blue Sea 8005 Ammeter.  These gauges will give me instant access to my battery health.  As you’ve seen in my Part 1 Electrical post I’m adding 6 12V plugs, a double West Marine plug is going on the panel. Finally the mini-jack plug for ipod/zune/sat radio will get mounted here (more on this in a future post).

For the panel itself I’m using left-over one sided teak 1/2” plywood.  Since the strip I have left is only 10” wide across the grain that became the limiting factor on my design.  I opted to go long to match the horizontal alignment of the new Paneltronics fuse panel and intend to hinge it along the bottom per the last image in Part 1.  Learning from my cutting experience with the countertop fabrication I used plenty of blue painters tape to protect the veneer.  To get my shape I used cardboard to make a mock up at the boat then two trips to the boat to fine tune the rough shape.

The panel has been cut to conform to the slight curve of the boat and the pieces are placed on top as I played around with arrangement.

Taped up with the cuts identified in pencil. Using tape also prevented alot of erasing in the future! Unfortunatly I realized at this point that my drills were all on the boat prompting a second trip in the rain to the boat for those vital tools so I could continue.

Getting there!  The small holes for the 12V plugs and the audio jack would have been so easy with an appropriately sized paddle bit… but a jigsaw and a pilot hole work too.

By about 1100pm I was done with cutting… everything takes longer than I anticipate!!  My trusty halogen work light was necessary as usual to finish up.

Mission accomplished… I deliberately crowded the two gauges to the left reserving space for an electric bilge pump controller at some point in the future. Also the panel is actually going to sit a bit to the left lined up with the voltmeter.  It’s not a masterpiece and definitely could be better lined up but once its stained and in place on the boat I think it will be a huge improvement.

Next up, staining… then on to the boat for mounting and cable pulling.