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Getting Tie Wraps Right

What using the wrong tie wraps says about boat wiring installation.

Tie Wrap Job

Ed Sherman

This time of year things begin to slow down a bit in the boating industry. Here in the Northeast everything is frozen in place and put to bed for a winter’s rest. All this is good because for me because it gives me a little time to reflect on the past year and what’s coming for the New Year. It also gives me some time to more closely look over some of the hundreds of photos I take during the previous year and think about why I took the photo in the first place. It’s usually because of something I really like, a beautiful scene, or something that triggers my “oh no, this isn’t good” reaction. It didn’t take me long to figure out which reaction hit me with the above photo. It was the “oh no” reaction. Not so much that something horrific is about to happen or already has, but it’s a workmanship issue. In this case, the white nylon tie wraps you see synching up some of the wiring are just plain wrong for this application. They’ll work fine for holding the wires together as shown, but to someone like me they show a clear lack of pride in the way things look when done with a job. Whether for electrical runs, or for running marine electronics cables, the little extra piece on the end of the wraps is for securing the cables to a bulkhead or other flat surface with a screw. Keep in mind that the shot was taken on a brand new production boat built on an assembly line somewhere. The installer probably has no clue that the wraps that he or she used are wrong for the application here. It all makes a guy like me wonder what else the production line supervisor forgot to tell the line workers about their electrical installations.

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