A few weeks ago, Tana and myself attended a bar b que/ family get together with her mom and dad and a couple of brothers who are local. Now her brothers are interesting guys. They are accomplished professional musicians, ex-outlaw bikers, drop outs, philosophers, survivalists, critics of all that capitalists hold near and dear and gun toting, open commentators of just about everything; they are the kinda guys you want on your side in the event of a ZOMBIE WAR or a RED DAWN situation; aside from this, they are all around tolerable sorts. OH!!, I forgot to mention they are also professional electricians.......this is where serendipity enters the picture..........
It just so happens that Zosha needs some new electrical circuits and some old ones rewired. Well, what do we Pavlov type-trained sailors do when we need some MARINIZED STUFF ?? We go to West Marine.....oh oh....hold it a minute....my wallet is twitching and gyrating ....it always does this when I mention the.....WM word.......OK.....we can continue now.....
Not being an accomplished electrician nor knowledgeable about the secrets that they hold so close like Masonic Rituals.....and after a coupla Busch Lights and a chicken wing or two, I asked these guys...."is there any difference between AC and DC wire? For you guys out there that know the answer to this.....all I can say is ...."gimmie a break, I didn't know" Well, I expected to be laughed off by these guys with that rolling eyes dumb ass look that the possessors of proprietary knowledge reserve for the uninitiated but these guys are pretty cool and just retorted in unison....
"S__ __ T no dude....wire is wire" ......My point is coming.....hang in there readers......
At this point I explained what I needed to rewire on Zosha and that the jobs would take about 100' of duplex wire that West Marine.....oh oh, that twitching in my back pocket again..... sells 100 foot spools for $109.99 FOR 12GA duplex or $74.99 for 14GA Duplex or $159.99 for 12GA Triplex or $109.99 for 14GA Triplex
Triplex above sold be WM-Duplex below-
As soon as they found out that these were 12 volt, low amp circuits, they informed me that "S__ __ T Dude you could use speaker wire for those circuits" .......running lights, foredeck, steaming, anchor, and spreader lights. Speaker wire!!! "Yeah dude...that will work fine" 12 Gauge speaker wire is 24 cents/ft, 14 Gauge wire is 12 cents/ft. Mmmmm very interesting...... I thought.....I've just been let in to the foyer of secret electrician stuff" ......
"The point is coming.....don't bail on me now" .............
After reflecting on this a while, my thinking was that the exterior covering of speaker wire might not be robust enough to endure the physical punishment inherent in the aforementioned applications like banging around inside the mast. Mmmmmm....what to do?? .....It came to me in a dream.....the one right before Tana dressed up in a CHER costume and the other one of me winning an Oyster 65 at the Annapolis Boat Show.
OUTDOOR EXTENSION CORD!!!!!! A 100 foot triplex 14 gauge outdoor extension cord is $39.99 at Harbor Freight, 12GA is $64.99.....if you can get past the orange color, you have just saved a ton of money on wire......The longest extension cord that I have found to date is 100'.... the14 GA is more than adequate wire size for most 12 volt low amp draw applications . On larger boats with longer wire runs, 12GA will work. Directly below is 100" of Harbor Freight 12GA.........under that 100" 14GA......
12 GA above...................
As a dyed in the wool capitalist and card carrying pro-business advocate, I believe all entrepreneurial ventures are entitled to make a profit. The issue with me is when does a respectable and ethical profit morph into a price that no reasonable man will tolerate and force oneself into searching for righteous substitutes? I have no vendetta against West Marine....."be still my beating wallet"......they are just so darned high for so many things that I've reached the point that in all good conscious I must search out ways to circumvent the need to spend my money there. You all know that sometimes WM is the only option. After all it is a specialty marine products company. "OK OK, enough rant dude" you must be thinking......
Until next time.....take care my friends and peace to you all....
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