Kuranda appoints new dealer...Loom-Tech Ltd

The demand for luxury and comfort on boats grows every day. As Paul Krivosic of Loom-Tech explains, ‘This has, unfortunately, resulted in an ever-growing web of wiring and monitoring or control panels, which creates a confusing and inefficient situation for the user and boatbuilder alike - let alone anyone who tries to take on a repair or upgrade.’
Just the voltage-drop calculations needed for safety and RCD compliance ‘make for a painfully slow and expensive process if you are installing your conductors one at a time’ says Mr Krivosic, causing the work to be ‘very prone to mistakes.’

So an increasing number of boat building companies are deciding to sub-contract the wiring out to companies like Loom-Tech – which leaves just the tying up of the made to measure looms around the tracks marked by the engineers.

There are other benefits. ‘Apart from reduced assembly times and knowing the boat has been properly wired, one of the most attractive things about this is the ability to fix the costs,’ says Mr Krivosic. A very good thing indeed in this economic climate.

But it is not just the wiring that needs know-how, as Brett McLellan of Kuranda UK points out. ‘Any equipment that you add to a system may have a 'knock-on' effect on other equipment, and it is important to know that all the components in the system will work effectively together.’

This means some more nifty calculations to assess power requirements and sizes of equipment needed. ‘For example,’ explains Mr McLellan, ‘if an immersion heater is to be fitted, the AC power distribution will be designed so that it only operates when the shore power or suitable generator is available. This will prevent excessive battery discharge, as the immersion heater cannot be powered by the inverter output.’

Mr McLellan goes on to say that, unfortunately, ‘there are no pre-determined packages - as everybody's requirements and demands are different,’ and so each system is designed specifically to fulfil those requirements and allow for future expansion or modification.

In order to ensure that potential system flaws or problems are eliminated, special features can be incorporated into the system design to help prevent certain heavy power consumers causing excessive battery drain or failure.

It is a methodical and engineered approach to ensuring the equipment and components are selected and sized to be compatible with each other as well as being suited to the way the system can be used.

Kuranda’s ‘Power Kit’ philosophy of specifying a full electrical system that will provide safe, managed power to meet individual requirements matches and complements Loom-Tech’s approach to measured, bespoke design. Recently, both Kuranda and Loom-Tech realised that they held two ends of the same piece of string (or cable) and have decided to form a working partnership to offer complete electrical system installation packages and after sales support.
So, the combined forces Kuranda and Loom-Tech together means that boatbuilders now have a way of handing over a substantial amount of the headache.