Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Brendon is hauled out and on the hard. The

yard has removed the bad stern tube, prop and shaft. I went by the yard this morning to see how things are going and decided to change the bonding wires that are attached to the cutlass bearing housing because they are so hard to get at. There are two valves in the cockpit lockers for the drains that have the bond wire laid down inside the hull to the bolts that hold the cutlass bearing housing. The second bolt has the bonding wires that connect to the engine valve and to the valves for the air conditioner and generator. The valve ends of the wires are easy to get at but the other ends at a real bit%^ so I decided to just replace them while everything in the way was removed. So much for a nice and easy Sunday! I replaced the #6 wire and terminals like for like. They looked fine from the outside but I have to say that the wire itself seemed a little degraded. The connections at the valves were nice, tight and clean but I'm going to go through the rest of the boat once it's back in the water and change the all of the bonding system wire just because it's been 15 years sense it's been replaced. I had planned on checking everything anyway so I might as well just replace it if I'm going to to that much trouble.