Regarding boat ownership, it’s been said that there are two good days. The day you buy the boat and the day you sell it.

Though I’d suggest boats provide many more good days, I understand the sentiment. It seems there’s always something to do to a boat as well as the trailer it sits on. And often the issue is electrical in nature. Here are a few tips to help keep things powered up and running correctly.

As boats gain a bit of age, wiring often becomes an issue. Moisture works its way into things, causing corrosion and poor connections. This is even more true with boat trailers as they are exposed to the harsh elements of highway travel.

When re-doing electrical connections, I’ve found solder seal connectors create a solid bond, much more dependable than standard butt connectors. The ones I use are made of a heat shrink tubing, inside of which is a ring of solder. Each end of the stripped wire is placed in the connector, which is then heated with a heat gun or propane torch. The heat melts the solder, bonding the wire ends. Also, the heat shrinks the tubing against the wire, creating a weather resistant connection.

I get better results using a heat gun rather than a propane or butane torch. It’s easier to control the heat, allowing the solder to melt without overheating the shrink tubing.

To make the bond even more robust, I cover the soldered connector with a piece of dual-wall adhesive shrink tubing. This is slid over the soldered connector once it’s been installed. The adhesive within the second tubing layer, once heated and shrunk, provides an added coat against moisture.

Another wiring-related product that comes in handy is self-fusing silicone tape. This stuff looks like standard electrical tape but is super stretchy. When you wrap it around something it fuses to itself creating a more permanent bond than electrical tape.

Modern sonar units often require hookups with several cables. Power cables, transducer cables, networking cables, all of which have plugs that can cause grief. To maintain a solid connection, I periodically spray both the male and female portions of these plugs with a very light coat of dielectric grease to prevent corrosion and dispel moisture. The Garmin Echomap units I run have cradles that the sonar units snap in to. The cradles also have electrical ports that get a shot of dielectric grease now and then.

While you have the dielectric grease out, give some attention to the terminals of your 12-volt batteries. Clean off any corrosion with a wire brush and then give the terminals a coat of grease.

Sonar units and other marine electronics typically come with inline fuses to protect the circuit. This is fine for a simple system with only one power cord. But as you add sonar units and additional fused accessories, things can become messy, a bundle of spaghetti. This can be remedied by powering a marine-grade fuse block directly from the battery. Then each accessory can be wired to individual fused terminals within the block. Be sure to use the fuse size recommended for each unit. When wired this way, you can eliminate the inline fuse.

You might also consider installing a marine-grade master switch between the battery and the fuse block. This way you can disconnect power to all your electronics when needed, protecting them and saving your battery should you forget to turn something off.

It's wise to carry an assortment of fuses in your boat in the event you need to replace one while on the water.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle