Electrical Fire Yam60f

Hi All, Excellent forum, loads of good info here.
First post, maybe someone can help.
20 year old Fletcher 15' Yam 60 autolube. One battery isolated though red/black plastic 2 pole switch.
In a recent swell the con from Battery+ to the isolator switch was broken and all electrics were lost. We started the engine by touching the other side of the isolator switch to the battery+terminal just long enough to start the engine. On or way back 5mins later smoke started pouring out of the dash and burned out the "Faria Battery condition gauge".
Q1.Did this happen because the alternator had no real load as it was not connected to the battery and the (I think) unregulated flow from the alternator was too much for the electrics?
Q2.I am unsure if the gauge was measuring voltage or the current going to the battery being produced by the alternator. The connections to it are pretty small wires.

After reconnecting the battery to the isolator switch everything seemed to work as normal despite being a few gauges down.
Boat is out of the water now and Im in the throws of replacing many of the connections.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks, Regards DN.

Re: Electrical Fire Yam60f

fletcher147 said:

Q1.Did this happen because the alternator had no real load as it was not connected to the battery and the (I think) unregulated flow from the alternator was too much for the electrics?

Click to expand...

i think you answered that one happeded to me terminal came loose in heavy seas 4m+ swell fried my radio, cd-player etc then blew rectifyer

Re: Electrical Fire Yam60f

Thanks for your info Googieman.

I am going to rewire it with more secure connections and replace the battery condition gauge with a good old fashioned voltmeter.
Hopefully the rectifier is OK. Cheers.dn