ABYC codes

I am about to take possession of my Uniflite 42. After inventory (and if I'm lucky), I expect I'll have a bit of remedial wiring to do. (If I'm not so lucky, I'll have a LOT of remedial wiring to do.)

I'd like to have a copy of the ABYC electrical codes to help with the work and I can't find a single collection of "electrical standards" that covers the entire vessel. They sell them piecemeal at $50 a pop which would be about $500.

A-16 Electric Navigation Lights $50
A-27 Alternating Current (AC) Generator Sets $50
A-28 Galvanic Isolators $50

etc...

https://abycinc.org/page/StandardsSupp58

Is there a place to get a full copy of the electrical standards? It seems they'd be readily & easily available so maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

Tak
Ps. Also I can't figure out why my profile picture doesn't show up in my posts. I have the right size png file uploaded and have the "show profile picture" checked.

Greetings,
Mr. T. MY $.02...Do what is necessary as advised by your surveyor. AYBC "codes" are suggestions ONLY. IF the surveyor OK's the electrical, you're good to go with your insurance company. I would suggest getting the newest copy of Calder's book and refer to that for your refurbishments. https://www.amazon.com/Boatowners-Mechanical-Electrical-Manual-4/dp/0071790330

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. T. MY $.02...Do what is necessary as advised by your surveyor. AYBC "codes" are suggestions ONLY. IF the surveyor OK's the electrical, you're good to go with your insurance company. I would suggest getting the newest copy of Calder's book and refer to that for your refurbishments. https://www.amazon.com/Boatowners-Mechanical-Electrical-Manual-4/dp/0071790330

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This

I don't know that you really need an ABYC guide to do electrical. Understand the basic principals of installation (crimping, sealing, retaining, abrasion prevention). Understand how to size and fuse properly for load and distance.

Tak,
I was an electrical engineer in a former life and I have to agree with other repliers that the ABYC codes are written like Gov regs and not so easy to use in a practical setting, whereas the Calder book is much more practical and affordable.
I'd recommend a full assortment of the heat-shrink self-adhesive butt connectors of varying size, a good ratcheting crimper, and a good wire stripper.
One more thing if you don't have it: I'd recommend an electric label maker so you can label everything as you go along, these are priceless on a boat

In addition to Calder's book take a look at "Boat Owner's Illustrated Electrical Handbook" by Charlie Wing.

You'll be buying hardware. Hard to go wrong with Blue Seas hardware. Their web site and downloadable catalog are a wealth of information.

MarineHowTo.com is another great resource.

Regarding ABYC being "suggestions". It is correct ABYC standards are not law. However many surveyors inspect to current ABYC standards, insurance companies then expect you to correct the surveyor's findings to ABYC standards. In my opinion it's easier to follow ABYC standards as I go along than "correct defeciencis" after the survey.

Takoradi said:

I am about to take possession of my Uniflite 42. After inventory (and if I'm lucky), I expect I'll have a bit of remedial wiring to do. (If I'm not so lucky, I'll have a LOT of remedial wiring to do.)

I'd like to have a copy of the ABYC electrical codes to help with the work and I can't find a single collection of "electrical standards" that covers the entire vessel. They sell them piecemeal at $50 a pop which would be about $500.

A-16 Electric Navigation Lights $50
A-27 Alternating Current (AC) Generator Sets $50
A-28 Galvanic Isolators $50

etc...

https://abycinc.org/page/StandardsSupp58

Is there a place to get a full copy of the electrical standards? It seems they'd be readily & easily available so maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

Tak
Ps. Also I can't figure out why my profile picture doesn't show up in my posts. I have the right size png file uploaded and have the "show profile picture" checked.

Click to expand...

This is one thing I really have against the ABYC standards. As a boat owner, wanting to have the actual list of standards even if they do read like government regulations was something I wanted as well and also looked for. You have to rely on hearsay and third party interpretations which is annoying unless you want to spend several thousand dollars to buy all the applicable standards, with the electrical alone at more than $500 as the OP states. Something reasonably priced for the boat owner/ DIY straight from the source that covered most things a boat owner might work with (Electrical, through hulls, plumbing, etc...) would sure be nice.

Good info above.

Welcome to TF.

If you research a particular subject enough...sooner or later you get an appropriate excerpt from the ABYC standards.


I believe Blue Sea has some online as well as Paneltronics .... https://www.paneltronics.com/Technical.asp?op=ABYC


There are other sources like when our member Boatpoker was discussing propane system installs....or just what some member quotes from something they had and several reputable members verify it (fact? no but good enough depending one the members)

sbman said:

This is one thing I really have against the ABYC standards. As a boat owner, wanting to have the actual list of standards even if they do read like government regulations was something I wanted as well and also looked for. You have to rely on hearsay and third party interpretations which is annoying unless you want to spend several thousand dollars to buy all the applicable standards, with the electrical alone at more than $500 as the OP states. Something reasonably priced for the boat owner/ DIY straight from the source that covered most things a boat owner might work with (Electrical, through hulls, plumbing, etc...) would sure be nice.

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Books like Calder's and Wing's fulfill that very purpose, as does https://marinehowto.com/.

I'd have to say 500 bucks doesn't sound unreasonable for the whole of AYBC's standards. Given other expert resources such as those mentioned, I rate them a "nice to have" for the amateur yachtsman, such as me.

caltexflanc said:

Books like Calder's and Wing's fulfill that very purpose, as does https://marinehowto.com/.

I'd have to say 500 bucks doesn't sound unreasonable for the whole of AYBC's standards. Given other expert resources such as those mentioned, I rate them a "nice to have" for the amateur yachtsman, such as me.

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$500 barely covers electrical. If it was for the whole of them, I could agree. I don't know how much the whole of them would cost. I have all of the resources mentioned above, most are excellent and have a reasonable estimation of what the standards are for most things I deal with, but that's not the same as having the actual standards. I'm surprised the government hasn't stepped in and created a set of standards, regulations and enforcement like they have with other transport industries. (Auto, Aviation, etc...)

Regard the PS: the photo that shows up on your posts is called an avatar, see this link for more.......

One might think as often as insurance companies want you to follow these guidelines....they would somehow make them accessible to you....it's in their best interest.

sledge said:

Tak,
One more thing if you don't have it: I'd recommend an electric label maker so you can label everything as you go along, these are priceless on a boat

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Sledge, is there a particular label maker/labels that withstand the moisture and heat of the engine room?


Tak

Thanks Psneeld. Very helpful.

rochepoint said:

Regard the PS: the photo that shows up on your posts is called an avatar, see this link for more.......

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As the great American philosopher H Simpson would say, "DOH!"


Thanks


Tak

Takoradi said:

As the great American philosopher H Simpson would say, "DOH!"


Thanks


Tak

Click to expand...

Looking good.........

I have a Brother label maker and so far it has been very good.

I have used a Brother P-touch 1000 label maker as well, directly on high heat things like oil filters and heat exchanger tanks, intercoolers, etc to note hours and date of servicing. Not to mention a variety of other ER things.

Supposed to be a five day free trial or some such. Sign up. Download what you want then let it expire.

Greetings,
Mr. sb. "I'm surprised the government hasn't stepped in and created a set of standards, regulations and enforcement like they have with other transport industries. (Auto, Aviation, etc...)" I sorta think they do have regulations under the USCG banner.


These are NOT suggestions but requirements that can be enforced by law. THESE are the rules you have to abide by. NOT the ABYC suggestions.

I agree with the above advice. I will emphasize that when you buy a crimper get a decent one. THere is a lot of cheap crap out there that will do a poor job..

Go to the following site and do some reading:
https://marinehowto.com/
He is an expert.

I agree about the books, Wing's and Calder's.

In addition to the typical sealant lined heat shrink tubing for the connections and for the terminals I use some light weight clear heat shrink tubing to encapsulate the labels. That will make them permanent. I use a label maker and the tape is sticky, Nylon with an acrylic adhesive, as all get out but after too many labels falling of in my work making repairs absolute heck years later, I started using the clear heat shrink over the labels.

Labeller: Mine was made for T & B but is no longer available. Brother makes several suitable for electrical work.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. sb. "I'm surprised the government hasn't stepped in and created a set of standards, regulations and enforcement like they have with other transport industries. (Auto, Aviation, etc...)" I sorta think they do have regulations under the USCG banner.


These are NOT suggestions but requirements that can be enforced by law. THESE are the rules you have to abide by. NOT the ABYC suggestions.

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Good point, the USCG regulations are there and are enforceable. They are really minimal for recreational vessels which drives an entity like ABYC to come up with their standards.

TakoRadi, for labeling I use a DYMO 5200 that can print directly on shrink tube in four sizes, the shrink tube comes in cartridges just like the stick-on tapes do (which it will also print onto). Great when labeling new wiring where I can put the shrink tube on before the connector.

Takoradi said:

Sledge, is there a particular label maker/labels that withstand the moisture and heat of the engine room?


Tak

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As some others noted, I too just use a Brother P-touch, and when you get replacement cartridges you can search for the water resistant version and they can typically handle the heat of an engine room.
One point if you are a little OCD like me; not all Brother or other models will do black on clear/white on black. Most will do the common black type on white.
I got a P-touch that does all three because you might find the OEM of the boat used white on black for certain things like circuit breaker labels.... but maybe they used black on white to label plumbing... etc.

"One more thing if you don't have it: I'd recommend an electric label maker so you can label everything as you go along, these are priceless on a boat"

YES!

And be sure to label any wire at an end and again a foot or two along the wire and cover the labels with clear tape.

2008 edition. There may be a newer one but this one should keep you confused.

There is a lot of incorrect info in this thread including:
sbman #7:

This is one thing I really have against the ABYC standards. As a boat owner, wanting to have the actual list of standards even if they do read like government regulations was something I wanted as well and also looked for. You have to rely on hearsay and third party interpretations which is annoying unless you want to spend several thousand dollars to buy all the applicable standards, with the electrical alone at more than $500 as the OP states. Something reasonably priced for the boat owner/ DIY straight from the source that covered most things a boat owner might work with (Electrical, through hulls, plumbing, etc...) would sure be nice.

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The fact is, anybody can join for $190/year which gains 24 hour/day access to ALL the ABYC standards. The $500 for the electrical standard (E-11) and thousands of dollars for all the standards is just flat wrong.https://abycinc.org/mpage/becomeamember

To then point about correcting what the surveyor has written up: surveyors rarely go behind the power panel and do not open up connection boxes, etc. so, if there are lots of electrical problems not in plain sight, the surveyor did not see them, they will not be written into the survey report which renders the typical survey report pretty minimal for electrical items.

To mitigate this shortfall, I recommend that a perspective buyer hire an experienced marine electrician, certified by ABYC, to perform an electrical survey prior to making an offer. I once recommended this to a boat broker that I had done a lot of work for and he said "I can't do that. It will bilge too many deals." Now that's buyer beware if I ever heard it!

I do concur with buying Nigel Calder's book. It is easy to read with great illustrations and he is part of the ABYC review process so ABYC requirements make their way into his book.

I have personally had several discussions with the powers at ABYC to try and get the Standards as open source. I continue to be turned down primarily because the other standards writing organizations (UL, NFPA, ISO, ASME, NMEA, IEEE, etc., etc.) charge for their standards.

CharlieJ said:

There is a lot of incorrect info in this thread including:
sbman #7:


The fact is, anybody can join for $190/year which gains 24 hour/day access to ALL the ABYC standards. The $500 for the electrical standard (E-11) and thousands of dollars for all the standards is just flat wrong.https://abycinc.org/mpage/becomeamember

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Glad to be wrong here. I had not seen any way for recreational boaters to join AYBC, it appeared to be limited to industry professionals. I see now there is a second side of their website if you hit the 'Recreational' button up on the top right corner of their website. Thank you for pointing this out, just joined and will see what's available.

CharlieJ, yes thank you for the correction. This is such a great web site.



Tak