Last winter I decided to do something about the rats nest of wiring in my boat. I removed the breaker panels, brought them home, attached all three to a piece of brass piano hinge and did a little re-wiring...

Panel

Then I built a little subpanel from a scrap of plywood to tidy up the existing wiring on the boat. (unfortunately its a bit of a daunting task to replace ALL the wiring on the boat, so this stays)

Subpanel

Now all I do is remove two screws to access all the wiring. Ill probably shave down the fiddle, so it opens even wider. Note the heavy AWG #6 wires supplying power from the batteries. No problem to run the refridgeration or a SSB from the breaker panel now.

Hinged access

I moved the house batteries under the cabin sole - easier to maintain them here and the weight is in the right place. Two Gr. 24s shown, one more aft of here and a Gr. 30 starting battery still in the old contortionist location in the starboard locker.

Batteries under sole

In the cockpit locker, I have a Raritan Crown charger/converter (old technology, but bulletproof), the windlass breaker, the Crown remote control (behind plexiglass)and, to the extreme left, the all important 80 amp fuse for the breaker panel. The refridgeration compressor is to the right.

In the cockpit locker

Here is a little closer view of the Blue Seas 80 A fuse, within 7, as measured along the conductor, of the main battery switch (where the heavy cables disappear through the hole in the bulkhead). This fuse is recommended by ABYC to protect the wiring feeding to the breaker panel. In my case, those AWG #6 wires could start a fire if they shorted and werent protected by this fuse.

80 A fuse

Here is what the other side of the bulkhead looks like: the windlass breaker, the control for the Raritan Crown, 120 VAC plug (fed from a GFCI plug further up the circuit) and the stock master switch. The small knob to the right is a switch for an engine compartment bilge pump - came that way from the previous owner.

Other side