Do You Smell Something Burning?

[CR CRUISER]

I gave a quote to a customer for an almost complete rewire on his 32' Bayliner. This boat has had a rough life in the hands of a backyard mechanic. Yesterday he brought the boat into town for me to start working on it and I went down to the marina to go over all that had to be done.

While we were out on the aft deck talking, I thought that I could smell something burning. Yup, the boat's on fire. There's a wire running inside the valance of one of the main cabin windows and it's flaming away. I got the fire out and turned off the battery switches. I commented that we were a day late in fixing up all of the electrical issues.

His reply, "Not really, I've had 2 other electrical fires in the past month".

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

O gezzzzz

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

LOL hopefully your per hour rate starts with

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

I might pass on that job; it's only going to get worse.

 

[Part-time]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

I'm definately going to have to borow this one... :laugh:

LOL hopefully your per hour rate starts with

 

[1973Chieftain]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

Wow, 3 electrical fires? Ouch!

 

[bassman284]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

Wow, 3 electrical fires? Ouch!

On the plus side, none of the three burned the boat to the waterline.

 

[CR CRUISER]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

I'll try to remember to take a couple of pictures today before I start cutting this mess apart. It's mind boggling that this boat was still in everyday use.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

Carnival Cruise boat, by chance? :laugh:

 

[Grub54891]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

Had a similar thing,dude brings the boat and says I was wiring, saw the magic smoke.....fix it! He had the trim pimp hot to the ground ground to hot,burned wires in the harness. Got er fixed and a happy boater.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

Went to work on a boat. the owner said, the radio hasn't worked since the last mechanic was there to change the oil in the motors???
I'm thinking??? Do I want to touch this boat?? Maybe get blamed for something like the last mechanic???
Got the job done. Was wondering about the radio and just had to check it out..
Turns out the radio had a push button on /off. It was turned down, nothing wrong, but he blamed the last guy who didn't even touch it.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Do You Smell Something Burning?

It's good when you get a clue like that before you take on a job (customer, client, etc) that you might be dealing with "one of them." It's also hard to turn down work these days. In any business, the one to watch are the "orphans" who have already been to a few people in your trade who didn't take the job.

As to wiring, I watched a nest of wires burn out on our family boat, and that was the primary reason I got a battery switch, so at least if there's a likelihood of wire fire, I'll be on board to deal with it. it also made me straighten out the mess. And this was just in the simple bilge pump/running lights set-up.