Wiring

[johnyIROC]

I bought my first boat last year, it is an 18.5' stratos ski boat.

I am in the process of installing a new stereo, and plan to hook the accessory power to the purple wire on ignition switch, and I am wondering why other accessories are not on the ignition switch.

The boat has a separate panel with a power switch, nav switch, bilge switch and horn. All of these seem to function, even when the ignition is off. I know that the bilge should be able to run all the time, but shouldn't the navigation lights etc. be run from the ignition switch so that they can not be accidentally left on?

[dagodiver]

just run the gauge power and that is all to the keyed ignition everything else to a fused supply.
do not over load the ignition with something like a radio. when the boat is done for the day turn off the battery switch and all is good.

Dago.

[JohnR]

I prefer to not run the radio off the ignition switch but straight from the battery instead. I spend hours at the beach most times listening to the radio and don't want to have any unnecessary draws on the battery. I believe it's bad for the electronics on the motor to be powered up when it's not running too.

[obrien]

A boat isn't like your car where the electronics are switched on with the key switch. If you really want to do that you can set it up so that the accessory side of the key switch activates a relay to power the stereo, but its really kind of a silly way to do it. Just wire the stereo to an extra switch or even to a power source that is only turned off by the battery switch. The bilge pump should have an automatic side and a switched side. The automatic side should be hot at all times and the switched side will work only with the battery switch on and the switch at the dash activated.