MacGregorSailors.com

My dad's always wanted a sailboat, so for his retirement/birthday I decided to go halves on one. We scored a 1983 Venture 222 in nice condition and have been working the past couple weekends to get it ready for the summer. With that being said, I have a few questions...

The previous owner murdered the wiring on the inside. He added a nice fuse and switch panel and perko battery switch, which was wired in nicely, but then went bananas with the wiring around the cabin. There were wires ran every which way to a half dozen 12v outlets and a few lights, with everything installed by duct tape. Where was the original wiring ran? I see two wires being ran behind the starboard wood trim, back to the stern light... are there channels back there? I'm a bit hesitant to start tearing apart the inside that much.

The red/green light at the bow is missing. Does anyone carry a direct-fit replacement? I've checked West Marine and ebay, but have found none that mount the same way. The mount is welded vertically to the bow rail, and all the ones I've seen have the mounting holes on the bottom to be mounted horizontally.

Along the same lines, it seems I'm not getting power at the connections for that light. The lights are ran through the rail and into the cabin. If I tie some new wire together and start pulling, will I be able to string new wires through easy peasy? I'd hate to try it and have it jam up or something, and be stuck figuring out how to run new wire through there without any sort of assistance.

Does anyone have a bilge pump, and where is it mounted? There's water under the rear dinette seat from uncovered storage, as well as under the starboard cockpit seat that opens up, and in the little square space between the two areas. It seems as though the cabin floor doesn't drain into the rear? So I'm torn between mounting it in the little square space, or the larger space directly under the starboard seat.

My specialty is in the detailing. I'm obsessed with keeping my car nice and it carries over onto my boats (I also have a 20' bowrider). Here's a few before/after shots from getting rid of all the oxidation... pre-wax as I didn't finish until after dark and the boat's been under a tarp since then. The first shows post-work towards the rear and pre-work torwards the front. In the 2nd and 3rd pics, there's a little nick in the gelcoat that I'll repair sometime this week, and a big messy splotch of what looks like epoxy or silicone that I'm a little hesitant to remove







Thanks for any help. It's cool to see there's a fairly active community for these boats

I would think it would be hard for any of us to address your questions since your previous (Harry Fixer) owner has decided to shoot from the hip with his wiring.

1. Go to home depot and ask for fish tape. If a guy looks at you strange, ask another guy. It is a thin metal band in a reel in the electrical department. Instead of drawing your new wires through with your old wires, do the same process with fish tape. Twist the ends of your old wires around the tape and then electrical tape the ever-livin pi$$ out of it. If it jams, pull on the fish tape and lead it back up front.

2. It sounds like there is a clear difference between his wiring and the factory setup. On my boat I had lamp chord run to a half dozen odd places. Assume the non-ductaped stuff is factory and that the other stuff was probably done in a weekend and fed around by just tucking it in.

My bilge pump is not mounted anywhere. I have a small Rule 2000 pump with 20' of 1" vinyl hose and about 20' of 16 gauge terminating in a marine grade cigarette lighter plug that I just put where-ever I need it whenever I need it. I run the hose up to the cockpit and out the transom. When it's not in use I coil it up and stash it under the aft berth. Works just fine, although when I'm done I have to lift it up to the companionway door height to empty the hose.

Regarding the wiring, I was just curious where the OEM wires were ran-- if they were hidden, and if so behind the wood trim or through the floor or elsewhere?. Right now I've added a couple lights and a 12v accessory plug to the cockpit, and have everything wrapped up in wire loom which I'll route along the ceiling. Looking at pictures of other older Macs online I see batteries in all sorts of locations, so I'm wondering now if Mac put them in different spots or what. Mine's under the forward dinette seat but it looks like there's wires ran to under the aft port bench seat as well. The only non ducttaped stuff were the battery wires. Everything else, from the wiring to the running/anchor lights to his half million 12v accessory plugs, was red/black 16 gauge wires.

I think I may end up popping a 12v plug on my bilge pump as well. I'd have like to have had it hardwired in with a switch, but even after the heavy rains we've had up here in NY there's really not much more water in the bottom than there was when we picked the boat up last month.

Thanks for the replies so far. I"ll head up to HD this weekend before we launch and see if i can find that fish tape.

The factory wiring on these Macs was very simple. Basically lamp cord run through the bilge. Look on Defender.com for your bow light, they'll have the best price too. Actually I think I found you one for $16.

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... 4&id=64357