Renovation Stories

The Problem

The Westerly Oceanlord 41 came with bronze through-hull fittings and seacocks from the factory. Over 35 years, various owners had replaced some with different types and brands, so by the time we got to them it was a mixture of original bronze and later replacements - none of them in good condition, and none of them matching. For non-sailors: a through-hull is a fitting that penetrates the hull below the waterline (water inlet for the engine, outlet for the toilet, etc.), and a seacock is the valve that opens and closes it. If the valve fails or the fitting corrodes through, you have an unplanned hole in the boat. That tends to shorten the day.

Bronze in salt water grows a green coat called verdigris - it looks salty and characterful, like the boat has stories to tell. Underneath, the metal is slowly dissolving. Several of our seacocks had handles that barely moved, and the valve bodies showed clear signs of dezincification - zinc leaching out of the alloy, leaving weak porous copper behind. The pink spots in the photo below are not a healthy colour for a valve that's supposed to hold back the ocean.

Why Trudesign

We chose Trudesign composite fittings for several reasons:

• No corrosion - the composite does not corrode, dezincify, or suffer from electrolysis. No anodes needed, no bonding wires required
• Load-bearing collar - each skin fitting has a proper collar that spreads the load across the hull, not just the thread. The old ones relied on the thread alone, which is fine until it isn't
• Ball valves with matched hose tails - right diameter and angle for each location, from 19mm to 38mm. No adapters, no bodging
• Open/closed monitoring - four seacocks (engine water inlet, generator water inlet, watermaker inlet, and electric head discharge) have sensors wired back to a dedicated Trudesign valve panel so we can see at a glance whether they are open or closed
• No more guessing - one look at the panel tells you if a below-waterline seacock is open or shut

Trudesign is used by production boatbuilders (Hanse, for example) and approved by several classification societies. The composite is UV-stabilised and rated for temperatures well beyond anything a through-hull will ever see.

Planning

Thirteen through-hulls means thirteen hose connections, each one different. Each location needed the correct hose tail diameter, the right angle (straight, 45-degree, or 90-degree), and the correct skin fitting size for the hull thickness. Some of the old fittings had non-standard threads or had been re-tapped over the years, so there was no trusting the old dimensions without measuring.

We also replaced the old wooden backing plates with custom-designed composite backing plates, produced specifically for this job - the wooden ones had been in place since 1987 and were showing signs of compression and rot - not what you want clamping a below-waterline hole.

Every fitting was labelled with its function and size during installation - Watermaker inlet 23mm, Aft sink drain, and so on - so there would be no doubt about which seacock controls which system.

Getting the Old Ones Out

This was the hard part. Old bronze fittings bedded in decades-old sealant do not come out willingly. Several required a heat gun to soften the sealant, then careful work with wrenches and extraction tools.

The real challenge was access. Many of the through-hulls on an Oceanlord 41 are in tight spaces - below floorboards, behind tanks, and in remote corners where you can barely reach, let alone swing a wrench. Working alone in a cramped bilge with a torch in your teeth comes with the territory.

Installation

With the old fittings out and the hull surfaces prepared, the new composite fittings went in. Each through-hull was bedded in sealant, with the load-bearing collar distributing clamping force across the hull. New custom composite backing plates replaced the wooden originals, and each ball valve was connected to its hose tail.

Four seacocks got open/closed monitoring sensors wired back to a dedicated Trudesign valve panel - engine water inlet, generator water inlet, watermaker inlet, and the electric head discharge. At a glance, we can see which below-waterline seacocks are open.

The Result

Thirteen new composite through-hull fittings, thirteen new ball valves, custom-designed backing plates, and four seacocks with open/closed monitoring. No more corroded bronze, no more seized valves, no more wondering whether a seacock is actually open or closed.

New ULTRAFLEX low-permeation hoses connect each valve to its system - no more ageing reinforced rubber that could delaminate.

The Original Panel

The original Westerly Oceanlord 41 came with a classic factory switch panel: printed labels, push-button breakers, and toggle switches on a black faceplate labelled "OCEANLORD 41". Over 35 years, previous owners had added circuits with handwritten labels and yellow tape - USB, Radar, Cockpit 12V, Fridge - all tagged onto the original layout.

Behind the faceplate, decades of additions had turned the wiring into a proper bird's nest. When we bought Lagertha in 2021, our first project was to make it safe, ripping out corroded chocolate block connectors and adding proper fusing. But that was always a stepping stone - we knew the full solution would come later.

Monitoring was basic: a voltmeter, a couple of indicator lights, and analogue gauges for the water tanks. No way to see what any individual circuit was drawing, no alarms, no remote control.

Why Simarine

We chose Simarine's digital switching system - a modern system used in new boats, for example from Hanse. Three things mattered to us:

• Manual relay switching - we can still operate every circuit manually at the distribution unit, even if the touchscreen goes dark. This was a hard requirement.
• Programmable panel grouping - relays can be grouped to switch together (all cabin lights on one button, all navigation circuits on another), regardless of their physical position on the distribution unit.
• Integrated monitoring - the Pico, included with the Nereide panel, shows voltage, current, state of charge, and tank levels in real time, with configurable alarms.

One thing we particularly like: the Nereide panel has real physical buttons with great haptic feedback. They feel like proper push buttons, not a flat glass panel. You get the monitoring and control of a touchscreen but the tactile confidence of real switches - the best of both worlds.

The system also supports NMEA 2000 switching, so circuits can be controlled from any N2K device on the network - MFD, tablet, or remote.

Work in Progress

The installation went smoothly thanks to our earlier rewire - all the circuits were already traced, labelled, and documented. But the detail work still took time: every wire had to be connected to the right relay, fuses sized correctly, and the Simarine configuration fine-tuned.

There were long sessions at the nav station with a multimeter, tracing circuits and verifying every connection before energising.

The New System

The finished installation includes:

• Simarine Nereide 2 - 5" IPS touchscreen for monitoring, plus physical buttons with haptic feedback for switching. NMEA 2000 integrated. Temporary until the Nereide Pro is released, which adds digital button labels and layering
• Simarine Pico - 3.5" monitoring display (included with the Nereide panel) showing battery state, tank levels, and current draw at a glance
• Simarine SPU-303 - 31-channel DC distribution unit with individual fuses (5A to 20A) and manual override switches for every relay
• Simarine SCQ25T - 4-channel digital shunt module measuring current on individual circuits (fridge, internet gear, and two more channels for diesel heater and autopilot)
• Simarine SRB530 - remote switch and bilge pump controller, managing forward and aft bilge pumps with automatic float switch inputs

All wiring is now clean, labelled, and properly sized for its circuit. Every wire tag reads clearly: Portable Light, Bilge Pump, Navtex, VHF, Deck Flood Light, Anchor Light, Navigation Lights - no more guessing what a mystery wire does.

What's Next

The Nereide 2 panel is fully functional but temporary - we are waiting for the Simarine Nereide Pro, which will add digital button labels (no more printed labels that fade), layering (group relays to switch together - cabin group, navigation group, and so on, each on one tap), and navigation light monitoring that confirms your nav lights are actually on and drawing current.

All channels are accounted for - the diesel heater and autopilot circuits are already monitored via the SCQ25T shunt module, and the SRB530 handles both bilge pumps with room to spare.

The Problem

When we bought Lagertha, the electrical system had accumulated decades of "improvements" - tapped wires, corroded terminals, melted chocolate block connectors, and no proper fusing. The old AGM batteries were past their best, cable runs had been added piecemeal with no regard for circuit length or load, and insulation was cracking and peeling on several runs. Green corrosion on terminals, melted plastic on connectors - it was only a matter of time before something failed at sea.

The old switch panel told the story - faded labels, a breaker wrapped in blue tape with an X marked on it for "water maker", and wiring that looked like a bird's nest behind it.

Clean Sheet Design

We didn't patch - we started from scratch. No cable was left old. Every run was calculated for its actual circuit length and current, sized accordingly, and properly fused. This isn't a one-size-fits-all job; each cable gauge was chosen for the specific load and distance it serves. All wiring is tinned marine-grade, with proper crimps for fine-stranded battery cables.

The DC System: Victron Lithium

Batteries: 2x Victron Smart Lithium 330Ah (660Ah total) - enough capacity to run the boat for days without charging.

Battery Management: Victron Lynx Smart BMS 500, Lynx Power In, and Lynx Distributor 1000 - a single modular busbar system that gives us cell monitoring, disconnect control, and proper fuse distribution in one clean package.

Charging: 3x Victron MPPT 100/30 solar controllers, plus the Quattro handles shore power and generator charging. The alternator charges the engine starter battery directly, and an Orion XS DC-DC charger then feeds the lithium house bank from the starter - keeping things simple.

Battery Protect: Fitted on the non-essential loads bus - if voltage drops too low, it sheds the non-essential circuits without killing navigation or safety systems.

The AC System: Quattro + Shelly

Victron Quattro 3kVA inverter/charger - the heart of the AC system. It manages two AC inputs (shore power and our Whisper 3.5kW generator) with automatic transfer switching. No manual changeover needed.

Quattro Bypass: We built a dedicated bypass panel with properly rated breakers so that both shore power and generator can feed the boat AC directly, bypassing the Quattro entirely for servicing.

AC Monitoring: Shelly smart relays on all four AC circuits, each individually monitored and switchable:

1. Sockets 1 - V-berth, locker, chart table
2. Sockets 2 - Aft cabin, galley, saloon
3. Chargers - two smart battery chargers: one for the engine starter, one for the generator starter
4. Calorifier - water heater with a twist...

Calorifier automation: When on shore power, it switches on automatically at 6am so we have hot water when we wake up. When switched on manually, it auto-shuts off after 45 minutes.

The New AC Distribution Panel

Circuit breakers, clearly labeled circuits, reverse polarity warning, and a Shelly display showing real-time consumption per circuit. A far cry from the faded labels and taped-up breakers we started with.

DC Switch Panel & Cerbo GX

Clean rotary switches for engine battery (OFF/1/2/BOTH), house battery (OFF/ON), and Quattro inverter (OFF/ON), plus a dedicated windlass thermal breaker.

Cerbo GX ties it all together - monitoring every Victron device, running Signal K for instrument data, and Node-RED for our automations (calorifier timing, alerts, and more).

Zero Old Cable

The most important thing: every single cable was replaced. Nothing was left from the old system. No splicing into ancient runs, no "that looks okay for now". Clean sheet, clean design, clean installation.

On crimps: we used proper cup-style dies for fine-stranded marine cable, not hexagonal dies. Both make contact, but hex crimps compress the strands too aggressively and can create high-resistance hot spots over time. The right tool for the right cable - that's the standard we set for this refit.

The Bird's Nest

When we bought Lagertha in 2021, one of the first things that had to go was the electrical chaos behind the main switch panel. Decades of additions, repairs, and "I'll just tap into this wire" had created a proper bird's nest - tangled red wires, corroded chocolate block connectors, and no proper fusing to speak of.

Some of the existing chocolate block connectors showed signs of melting, which was a clear warning: inadequate fusing and improper current planning. If a connector melts, it means too much current was flowing through a circuit that had no proper protection. On a boat, that's not just inconvenient - it's dangerous.

What We Did

• Ripped out the old chocolate block connectors and replaced them with WAGO lever connectors - reliable, tool-free, and properly rated
• Added proper circuit fuses where there had been none, ensuring every circuit is protected at the right current rating
• Took the opportunity to audit everything - traced every wire, identified every circuit, and documented what connects where. This audit became our electrical reference for all future work

A Stepping Stone

This rewire was always intended as a temporary measure - a way to make the electrical system safe and documented while we planned the final solution. The proper panel upgrade came later, but this first step was essential: it made the boat electrically safe and gave us the knowledge base to plan the full refit properly.