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Rewiring Your Boat? What's It Cost?
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Aug 16, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
There's no way that could cost that much
0:03
Everybody, what's up? You know a question that we've been getting a lot lately is how much would that cost
0:08
Everybody wants to know the price. Since it's technicians Tuesday, and we need to start spending some cash and ordering some parts for the Ocean Master
0:16
so that way we can keep going once we're done with the fiberglass on the transom
0:20
seems like today would be a good day to figure out how much would it cost to rewire a boat
0:25
Now, this is going to be a rough estimate for the materials, which is why you should get subscribed to the channel and hit that notification bell
0:32
so you don't miss out when we do the work to see how long it will take and see what that labor bill will look like
0:38
There's going to be a ton of information in this video so you want to watch it all the way through
0:43
so that you can see the different numbers once we get to the end. Also check down in the description because here in the future once we finish this project
0:51
I'll put together a step-by-step guide on how to diagnose, install, and wire up all of the pumps
0:58
and electrical components that are on the average boat. So that way, you can save some serious money the next time a pump or light fails
1:06
as well as having the confidence and know-how to fix it yourself and get back on the water
1:11
I want to break this down into four major groups so that we can get numbers for different situations
1:17
A lot of people say the term I want to rewire my boat, but they are only talking about just replacing the wiring
1:23
and not any of the lights or pumps or the electronics. Then others say the same thing and they want to replace everything
1:30
So we will break it down to get four different numbers that can be added together depending on which of the situations you are in
1:37
The first group will be the actual wires and all of the connectors. Then number two will be any of the lights
1:43
Number three, the pumps, live well pumps, bilge pumps, float switches. And then number four will be the electronics, your VHFs, stereos, GPSs, and whatever else you want
1:54
That way we can get a breakdown of what it costs depending on how much stuff you want to replace
2:00
or if you are starting from scratch and need to buy everything. First off, let's talk about the wiring
2:06
Now for the most part, we can do most of the wiring using the same gauge wires for almost everything in the boat
2:11
with the exception of high power-consuming electronics like stereo systems, certain transducers
2:18
electric reels, and other things like that. but for the pumps, lights, and most of the 12-volt electronics, 14-gauge wire will be fine
2:27
So we'll need to take some measurements to figure out how much of that wire we will need
2:31
Before measuring anything, though, how about hitting that light button for us
2:35
And then we can start in by figuring out what are all the things that we are going to have
2:39
when it comes to the lights, pumps, and electronics. Here on the Ocean Master, we've only got eight switches
2:45
so we'll probably have to end up replacing this panel in order to account for what all we are putting in
2:50
because we don't need two builds pumps, we don't need to have a separate switch for the navigation and the anchor lights
2:57
and since these are already labeled and we can't change the labels, we might change the whole panel out just to make it look cleaner
3:04
but we'll see because this panel is in great shape, so you hate to replace stuff that you don't need to
3:09
Now in order to figure all of this out, we want to be writing everything down as we go along
3:14
Since we're changing the stuff on the panel and adding some stuff, we don't need to necessarily worry about going down the panel using it as a checklist
3:23
Instead we just start out with the nav light and figure out how much wire we will need in order to get to the nav lights there in the bow Now remember that these numbers don need to be exact because we be adding them all up together and then just buying a big spool of wire
3:37
and cutting the links that we need off of the spool as we install them into the boat
3:42
So we'll just round up to the nearest half or foot. We'll be rearranging all of this wiring here in the console
3:48
and installing a new fuse panel so we can just start all of our measurements
3:51
from about the center of the console here where all the wires are
3:55
Then we want to follow the wire and add all of the measurements together as we go along to come up with the distance from the console to where the lights are located
4:04
For us on this 23-foot boat where our lights are here on the side, we end up with 25.5 feet for the port light and then just another 4 feet to get from the port to the starboard light
4:15
Next up, we'll check out the anchor light here on the teetop. This is a standard 4-inch all-around light with three wires
4:22
Just like we did with the nav light, we want to measure from the light. light down. We'll measure through the T-top tubing and down to where the tubing goes into the console
4:30
We'll add four feet for inside the console, which turns out to be 13 feet, and we'll write that
4:36
down here in our notebook. This is pretty much the same system for doing each and every single
4:42
thing that we want to put in the boat. It's important to plan out what we want and where we want
4:47
it to make sure we get as close of an estimate as we can. That includes all the stuff that we have
4:53
in this electronics box up here. But we'll be getting rid of most of this stuff like the cassette player, the speakers, as well as this little GPS that they have up here
5:02
I think the only thing that we will be putting up here is the VHF radio, so we will need to be running some power up into this box
5:11
For this boat, we have the spots for two VHF antennas, and we will go ahead and put two antennas on here, one for the VHF and then another antenna for the radio
5:21
Shakespeare does make a splitter that can be used to use the same antenna for
5:25
for both the VHF and the radio, but we'll just go ahead and install two antennas for this time
5:31
We'll measure back to the back and get the amount of wiring that we need to have for the bilge pump, the live well pump
5:37
the float switch, and the underwater lights. You can see that it's easy to get all these measurements
5:42
for each one of the electrical components and write them down so that we can get an overall length
5:47
of how much wire we will need. For us on the Ocean Master
5:51
we come up with needing 233 feet of 14-gauge two-wifold wire, as well as some odd color wire like some pink wire for the fuel sender and some black
6:01
wire to the ground for the fuel tank and to get ground to the fuel sender
6:05
Then before calling it quits on the wire, we don't want to forget about the heavy gauge
6:09
wire for the batteries and the power to the engine. We'll be moving the batteries from the back of the boat and installing them here in the console
6:16
so we need to figure out how much red wire we'll need to wire up our battery switch as well
6:21
After locating where we want to put the battery switch, which for me and most boaters, we don't want to have any kind of hassle at all to use our boat
6:30
You don't want to have your battery switch down somewhere that gets you frustrated trying to get to it just to turn it on or off
6:36
That's why we'll be putting it somewhere around here, right inside the console, so we can reach in and just switch it on or off
6:42
So for our red wire, we'll need about 11 extra feet for the battery switch, and then after measuring to the back of the boat, we know we'll need another 25 feet
6:51
feet of wire bringing us to around 35 feet of red wire and 25 feet of black wire and we be using 2 gauge to carry the heavy load over that long distance back to our engine This brings us to our wire connectors and the ends that we need for each wire and for this type of project it best to just buy a 50 pack or so of the heat shrink ring connectors
7:12
a hundred pack of the butt connectors, and depending on how many batteries you have, a 10 pack of battery cable ends
7:19
And that's it for the wiring. Our next group is all of the lights. This includes the most commonly found lights for most boats
7:26
being the nav lights, anchor light, console light, gunwale lights, under water lights, and the sputter lights
7:33
All of these are preference and situational to your boat, so for the sake of the estimate numbers
7:38
what we have in the end will be for our 23-foot boat and the amount of lights we are going to be putting in it
7:45
Then we have all of the pumps, which again are preference and situational to your boat
7:50
For us, I'm only going to be using a 2,000 gallon per hour bilge pump with a standard rule
7:56
float switch, one live well pump, a freshwater washdown pump, and a saltwater washdown pump
8:01
which is just a basic pump setup for whenever you only have one bait well and no head on the boat
8:07
Lastly, we come to the most preferential group being the electronics. For this, you can spend about a thousand bucks and be up and running, or you can spend $50,000
8:16
and be the talk of the town. It's all up to you and how fancy you can afford to make your boat
8:22
For us, we're not fancy, and we can't afford to act like we are. which is why we'll just be doing a standard VHF radio, a decent GPS unit with a good through-haul transducer
8:33
a decent compass, and a basic stereo system. Which will probably be the most expensive part of the electronics that we put on
8:41
because we'll have the head unit, four speakers, one subwoofer, and then one multi-channel amplifier to drive them all
8:48
Meaning it's time to get into some numbers. For this, you just need a computer or a lane-in-see or port supply catalog in about an hour
8:56
so of time where we can keep ourselves focused and not go down the Dreamers rabbit hole when
9:01
you see the most expensive and ridiculous products that they have out there to put on your boat
9:06
Meaning if you're like me and can't afford a $12,000 24 inch Simrad GPS unit, we don't need to
9:12
spend three hours looking at all the things that can do or all of the cool stuff that we also
9:17
can't afford that can hook up to it. With that being said though, let's look at our wiring first. Two-wire cable is generally
9:25
called Romex and comes in rolls of 100 to 500 feet. We just need one 250 foot roll of red and black
9:32
142 cable. 142 just means that it is 14 gauge wire and there are two of them. An anchor brand
9:39
roll of this is usually about $300. We'll also need the battery cables that come in 25, 50 or 100 feet
9:47
Anchor brand for the 25 foot 2 gauge is about $180 and for the 50 foot it's $350.00. For the 50 foot, it's
9:53
$350. There is also a brand called Cobra, which is a little bit cheaper at $160 for the 25 foot and
10:02
$320 for the 50 foot, bringing our total to about $400 to $500 for the cables. Now for the rest of what we'll
10:10
put into the wire category comes out to be around $1,150 depending on how much you need of everything
10:18
including the wire connectors, battery lugs, ground bus bars, fuse panels, fuses
10:23
toggle switches, battery switches, and whatever else you will need for your boat
10:28
Depending on how fancy you want to go for us and the 23 Ocean Master our wiring comes out to be around for the parts The next category is going to be our lights
10:39
Now, lights can get extremely expensive, depending on how fancy you want them to be
10:44
We'll be adding up just the middle, general style of lights, not the cheap stuff, but not the most expensive stuff either
10:50
So after picking out the lights, we end up with the nav lights, anchor light, two spreader lights, two underwater lights, a teetop light
10:58
and six gunna lights, giving us a grand total of $820, which isn't really that bad to do
11:04
brand new lights all over the boat. Our third category of the pumps is pretty close to the same
11:10
as the lights. After pricing out the bilge pump, float switch, live well pump, fresh water washdown
11:16
and the salt water washdown, as well as the plumbing that will be needed to install at all
11:21
we come to a total of $1,089. Now before talking about our last category, so far we have a
11:28
a grand total of $3,059. So we're looking at just over 3 grand to buy all brand new wire
11:35
connectors, lights, and pumps to rewire a 23-foot boat, which isn't really that bad
11:40
for the material because it is a labor that makes the whole job so costly. But don't worry
11:45
though, like I said in the beginning, once we finish this project boat, we'll be making
11:49
a complete guide on how to rewire, install, and hook up all of these things that we have
11:54
talked about in the video so far. So check for a link in the video. description below and our last category is going to be the most preferential. The
12:02
cost can change dramatically depending on how big you want to go. Before seeing what
12:07
we're looking at to put in the Ocean Master, if you haven't yet, hit that
12:11
like button for us and check out what we're looking at to put in this boat. For the
12:15
VHF radio we'll just stick with the standard ICOM for about 250 bucks and two
12:21
four-foot Shakespeare antennas at $200 a piece. We're looking at doing a
12:25
jail audio stereo system including the JL head unit, four seven and a half inch speakers, one 10 inch subwoofer, and a five-channel amplifier
12:35
which altogether for the stereo system it would cost just over $2,000
12:39
Include the VHF and antennas, and we're looking at $2,650, and that's not including the GPS unit yet
12:47
For the GPS, it's really dependent upon how much money is left over in the budget
12:52
because for a good 9-inch screen and a good transducer is going to run you like $3,000
12:58
And I know you're saying there's no way that could cost that much, but just check out this Simrad NSS9, Evo3, and this Navico Structure Scan Transducer, and it's just over $3,000
13:10
And that would bring our total electronics package to $5,650. We'll bring in our grand total next
13:18
But before that, please make sure you get subscribed to the channel and click that notification bell
13:23
so when we do all the work you can see how long this takes as well as what it would look like for the labor to do a job just like this
13:31
But when we add everything up together for the entire rewire including all the lights, pumps, and electronics
13:38
that is going to bring us to a grand total of $8,709
13:42
in material just to set up your average 23-foot center console. Check us out at born-againboating.com
13:50
Thanks for watching everybody and we'll see you next next. week
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