Boat electrics and electronics, done properly in our workshop
Ferry Marine's workshop in Livingston, twenty minutes from Edinburgh, looks after the electrical side of a boat as well as the engine. New wiring and switch panels, batteries, charging and solar, chartplotters, radar, VHF and custom dashboards to put them in.
Bring the boat to us and the job is done here, where the tools, the test gear and the parts are.
Boat wiring, switch panels, batteries and charging
Most boat electrical problems live behind the dash: joins that were never meant to get wet, circuits added one at a time over twenty years, and a fuse nobody can find. We'd rather put it right than patch it again.
- New looms. Marine-grade tinned cable, sized for the load, properly terminated, labelled, and run where it can't chafe.
- Switch panels and circuit protection. Fused or breaker panels, laid out so every circuit is labelled and easy to find in the dark.
- Batteries. Every type — lead-acid, AGM, gel and lithium — with isolators and battery monitoring.
- Charging. Split charging, so the engine battery is always there to start on however long the plotter has been running, and solar panels to keep the bank topped up on the mooring.
- Shore power. A shore-power inlet fitted to the boat, so you can plug in at the marina.
- Lights and pumps. Navigation lights, deck and cabin lighting, underwater lights, bilge pumps and float switches.
- Rewiring older boats. When the existing boat wiring is past saving, a full rewire rather than one more repair.
We work on the boat's 12V and 24V systems, not mains wiring. Everything is tested before the boat goes home.
Marine electronics installation
Chartplotters, fishfinders and sounders, radar, VHF and AIS, thermal cameras and marine audio, all supplied and fitted, and set up to work together.
We supply and fit Garmin, Raymarine, Lowrance and Simrad, so the choice can be made on what suits your boat and the way you use it. If you've already bought the kit yourself, we'll fit that too.
The installation is where electronics succeed or fail:
- Transducers mounted where they read cleanly at speed, not just where there was room.
- Radar mounted at the right height on the arch, T-top or radar mast, with the cable run and sealed.
- VHF and AIS with the antenna and cable run for range, and connected to GPS so a DSC distress call sends your position.
- Autopilots set up and calibrated to the boat, so they steer a straight line rather than hunt for one.
- One network. Plotter, radar, sounder, autopilot and engine data on one backbone, so the screen at the helm shows what the engine is doing as well as where you are.
Custom acrylic boat dashboards
and console layouts
Custom acrylic dashboards are our speciality, and every one is designed and made here. Instead of cutting one more hole in a tired console, we design a new boat dashboard around what's going on it — the display, gauges, switches and radio and laser-cut the dashboard panel in acrylic to fit. We can fit it, or you can. When the boat is with us, we'll template the console, make the dashboard and fit it with the wiring behind it done properly. If you'd rather fit it yourself, you don't need to bring the boat, or even come to Livingston. We make self-fit dashboards for boat owners anywhere in the UK, by post.
How a self-fit acrylic dashboard is made
You make a template.
Cut a template of your existing dash in cardboard or polythene, and post it to us or drop it in. Tell us what's going on the new panel — the display, gauges, switches and radio.
We digitise it.
Your template goes on our digitiser, which traces its outline and every hole into the computer exactly as you cut them, so the new panel is the shape of your console, not an approximation of it.
We design the layout.
On screen, around the kit you're fitting, with every cut-out sized to the equipment that goes in it.
We laser-cut it.
Cut a template of your existing dash in cardboard or polythene, and post it to us or drop it in. Tell us what's going on the new panel — the display, gauges, switches and radio.
We post it back.
It's ready to drop straight into the console. Easy!
A new dashboard is the usual answer when:
- a new display won't fit the old dash, and the console is a patchwork of blanking plates and old screw holes
- a RIB console needs its helm rebuilt around new electronics
- a new engine brings new gauges and controls
- a refit deserves a helm that looks as good as the rest of the boat
Electrical fault-finding
Instruments that flicker, a battery that's flat every weekend, a plotter that keeps losing its fix, a bilge pump that runs when it shouldn't. Most of it comes down to wiring, connections or charging, and we trace it methodically rather than swapping parts until the fault goes away.
We don't repair electronic units themselves. If a display or radio has genuinely failed, we'll prove it's the unit and not the wiring before anything is replaced, then supply and fit the replacement.
A fault on the engine itself is a job for our outboard servicing and repair team, in the same workshop.
Electrics alongside a new engine
A new engine usually means new gauges, new control wiring and a charging system that has to keep up. Doing the boat's electrics in the same visit means one job, one set of downtime, and a helm that's designed as a whole rather than added to. The engine side is on our new outboard engines, supplied and fitted page.
In our Livingston workshop, or on site for commercial boats
Electrical work for private owners is done in our workshop, not at a berth. Bring the boat on its trailer — we're in Livingston, EH54, just off the M8 — and it's worked on under cover, with everything to hand.
If you run boats commercially — a marina, military boats, a sailing school's RIBs, tour or charter boats — we'll come to you, and work round your season.
RIBs, sportsboats, day boats and motor cruisers come to us from across Scotland and the north of England, from owners who want marine electronics near home fitted by marine electricians who also understand the engine.
Boat electrics questions we get asked
Can you come to my boat?
For private owners, no. Electrical work is done in our Livingston workshop, where it can be done properly and tested before the boat goes home. For commercial operators, yes — we work on site.
Which electronics brands do you fit?
Garmin, Raymarine, Lowrance and Simrad. We're not tied to any one of them, so we'll recommend what suits the boat.
I've already bought my electronics. Will you fit them?
Yes. Bring the kit with the boat and we'll install it and set it up.
Can you repair my chartplotter or radio?
No, we don't repair electronic units. We'll find out whether the fault is the unit or the wiring, and if the unit has failed we can supply and fit a replacement.
Can I order a dashboard and fit it myself?
Yes, from anywhere in the UK. Post us a cardboard or polythene template of your dash, or drop it in. We'll digitise it, design the layout, laser-cut the dashboard panel in acrylic and post it back for you to fit.
Can you rewire an older boat?
Yes. If the existing boat wiring has been added to over the years, a full rewire with a new switch panel is often cheaper in the long run than chasing faults one at a time.
Do I need to have bought an engine from you?
No. We do electrics and electronics on any RIB or powerboat, whatever's on the back of it.
Tell us about the boat, and what you want at the helm!
Send us the boat — make, length and what it's used for — what's on the dash now, and what you'd like. A photo of the console helps more than anything — WhatsApp it to us