tom cat help

Roger brings out a good point--and it is obvious that at least the TC 255'as are done differently in the plumbing department--I have seen several different ways that the Y valve and macerator are done. I suspect that someone felt that Dr. John's boat was better because the macerator and Y valve was out of the under the galley area--often a food storage area. But I would have a fit, if I could not easily access the pumps and hoses. There is an access port to the area under the controls, but it would not be easy to get to hose clamps--or even the control adjustments.

For the most part the electrical seems to be the same on the boats I have looked at. There may be some minor variations, and some folks have wanted custom layouts of switches. The access to the electrical and ability to trace behind the console is excellent. Unfortunately there are no coding attempts. When I put in a new wire or trace out a circuit, I label both ends--at the appliance and at the fuse end, or at the battery and at the pannel end. Consiquently most of my wiring is now labled. The factory should be doing this. Many just use numbers and have a code book. Many production boats use a standard color code. The engine harnesses seem to have a coded bundle. But for example when the Wallas technnical assistance told me to pull the fuse for the stove power, I had to pull 3 fuses to determine which it was--

I think that the majority of the boats are wired the same ref the main trunk lines, but when extra batteries are put in at the dealer (I understand that the boats are shipped without batteries) then they may be hooked up differently--again, the factory should supply a diagram.

Bob Austin
 
Bob - My "Y" valve is in the cabinet under the Wallas area. This will give the most access of any location, I think, if the electronics were not over the "Y" valve. But, some of it is open.

The entire under sink cabint wall area, front, side and back, are covered with electronics units. I am thinking I'll have to put a plastic shield to protect from any stray water leaks. I am not worried about food near the "Y" valve since most of my food is kept in removable, sealed containers to reduce rodent and rot problems.

John
 
Hey Bob! What type of label maker or wire identification unit do you use?? Simple gum labels with ink or do you have some type of label maker that prints nice clean readable labels?

Byrdman
 
Byrdman,
I use a cheap Brother label maker which I keep on the boat. I have had the best luck with the TZ laminated plastic tapes, wrap the tag bround the wire, not try and stick it on the wire.

Dr John--I assume that the electronics under the sink and stove are for electronic shift on the Morris controls. In our C Dory there are no electrical or electronic items under this area--save the wires to the Wallas stove--and well covered the back of the 110 volt outlet. Agree with all food going into plastic tubs and being covered. We have had a fair amout of water leakage mostly from the shower (problem resolved with new connectors). We had to also tighten one of the fittings on the sink faucet.
No evidence of sewage leakage in this area--but certainly something to consider if there were a leak. John, is there another board attatched to teh side of the hull which is inboard of the Macerator and Y valve. From your origional description I made (probably a wrong) assumption that it was foreward and outboard of the helm seat, under the shifter and throttles.

Regards,

Bob Austin
 
Bob...

The "Y" valve is mounted against the starboard hull to some bonded panel under the Wallas area. It is pretty accessible, except that another, second panel is suspended inboard (over the valve itself) upon which the Morse control cylinders are mounted. Looks kind of like a small steam engine/piston setup there.

The guy who installed all the optional electronics (non-factory items) put all of them under the kitchen sink/Wallas cabinet area, on the walls. There's a remote Raymarine VHF radio, the autopilot, the fluxgate compass, Sirius weather receiver, Raymarine E-80 controls, ethernet gates, gps control, depth finder control and some other things. Pretty much solidly covered with grey boxes. An additional, large fuse box was added here, another under the helm and another under the aft control station, and another in the stern.

When I get the boat back and the weather warms a bit, I'll take complete photo coverage of all the installations so far. That will help us all to better solve any problems.

Lots of wires! It'l take me forever to label them all... John
 
the fluxgate compass under galley,

Remember the location of that compass. Any metal objects near or especially touching it and your in the Bermuda triangle with your electronics.
Most all of the electronics you described are on the back of the helm in my 25 with the exception of satellite TV. It is under the galley to make use of the AC plug. My fluxgate compass is in a different area away from everything and Byrdman and I still spent a night in the Bermuda triangle because of a zipper on a rolled up sleeping bag.

Would a plastic zip tie work on the Y valve so you don't have to fish a lock into that area?
 
The old zipper on the compas trick.... What a deal. Sure was glad I had my ol reduncency bag with me...which I get on most boats with and had my little tiny hard to see, none/color 2" screen Garmin 76S on board.... I did have the bad rocks marked, but man was it hard to see that sucker without my glasses that night, and after seeing the E120 Big Screen. We did have a good laugh..

Also, there are some small cable locks that might be able to lock the Y valve. I guess when/if inspected, it will simply get down to what locked/secured from use really means to the inspector on the vessel at the time.

Byrdman
 
A night in the Bermuda Triangle, on a boat, with Byrdman?????? That's the stuff of Steven Spielberg fame!

Re the compass.... the unit is labelled and the installer warned me that I should generally keep movable metal from anywhere in the under sink area.

I wish I were closer to the boat to picture all this better. One's mind starts to play tricks when trying to remember which neutral gray box is where when almost every cabinet has some electrical gadget inside.

Re: the lock.... I know that Missouri requires an actual padlock on the "Y" valve and, by telephone, Oklahoma has said it must be " impossible to dump", so I'm planning on finding a padlock. At Grand Lake, even if your boat is properly licensed, registered, etc., you cannot use your boat until a Grand Lake O' the Cherokees inspector has inspected your boat and affixed his sticker..... every year....

John

Thanks for the sleeping bag/zipper warning, though... John
 
Just for comparison, I put all of the electronics either in front of the helm, a remote VHF on the side foreward of the breaker box. If and when we put in an auto pilot, the gyro rated flux gate compass will go under the bunk and the pump set will be foreward of the console. Of cosure not having the remote controls for the shifter makes some difference.

We do store metalic objects (pots and pans etc) under the galley, as well as food.

Regards,

Bob
 
I too have the Morse electronic controls. They are mounted under the sink. However, my network modules are mounted in back of the helm and the fluxgate compass is mounted on the centerline under the v-berth. The area under the sink/wallas in great for storage. The y-valve for the holding tank is easily accessible.

By the way Dr. John how are the permatrim tabs working out? And I have a question about the camper back on your Tom Cat. When the camper back is not in use, will the support rods be in the way when fishing or fighting a fish? Or will it rest out of the way?

Gene
 
Gene,

I only had the week over Christmas at Edmonds to evaluate the Permatrim performance. Roger and I both felt the boat hit a plane much faster than most have reported. Just leaving the engines trimmed level, it planed at about 12 knots, but I have not been on the boat for over a month now. Also, the water was so rough most of the time we were cruising, that there was not much time for casual comparisons.

Both Roger and I felt the Permatrims were wonderful for keeping the bow down while going upwind into large waves. Really reduced porpoising. We did have a chance to compare the 'bow-down' effect of engine tilt, versus just running them level upwind, and there was a day to night difference there.

Re: the canvas - I'm really glad I got it, but the back support rods would interfere with fishing. Fortunately, the support rods come with quick-connect pins with a cable to keep them handy. I just unpinned them and used shock cords to tie the bow to the the radar arch.

some of the C-Brats with CD 22's have put sliding tracks for the supports in order to slide them forward for quick folding storage of the top.

I think I saw someone on this site who had a "free-standing" bimini setup which had a rod running fore-to-aft between the two supporting bows. As for me, I am thinking of putting a rod up to the cabin or radar arch, along with a rod in between the two bows, which would eliminate the need for the aft support rods. I have seen some ppl who had a cantelevered overhead canvas support which was somewhat permanent, but opened up the stern a about half the gunwale length for fishing.

John
 
***

Lady KC has a vinyl covered wall panel behind the helm.

I have now cut a hole in this panel and installed a simple plexiglass cover for quick access to this area.

I will now post some pictures under Lady KC photo album.

***
 
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