www.iFourWinns.com

Just had our "new to us" 2000 298 Vista delivered last Friday. Had to fully winterize (kept in Virginia) and now I can't tinker with it until Spring. There is no Four Winns dealer near our marina. Is a marine mechanic the best person to turn to in the spring to show us the ins and outs of operating all the numerous gauges and gadgets (and the 400 fuse panel switches) or should we employ a certified captain? My husband and I have been boating for 20 plus years, but this is our first cruiser.

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Current: 2000 298 Four Winns Vista
Previous: 1999 Maxum 2300
1994 Four Winns Horizon

There will be plenty of other boaters at your marina willing to help you with all of your inquiries. That's the best part about cruiser life.

John

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07 Azure AZ200,
Previous boat,
95 278 Vista,
And a lot of others.

Ontario, Canada

What were your other boats? And will you be using this one in the same waters? Whereabouts? Might be someone local that someone here on the forums knows about.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Here to help with questions - I have a 2002 298 Vista ...

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2002 Vista 298 VP 5.0Gxi

D.I.Y. That's the best part of getting a new boat. If you learn how it all works at a nice slow pace it will sink in better than having someone fly through it. It is a popular boat so there will be plenty of advise available on here should you need it.

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Regards
Beyond the Blue

"If we improve with age I'm now excellent"


Ex 1998 238 Vista 5.0Gi SX DP
Lexus RX300

What about the selling dealer?? I would down load manual, it only goes back to 2002 but they should be close. Or call/e-mail Four Winns.

http://www.fourwinns.com/content/custom ... nuals.aspx

It should not the that much of a difference between this boat & your old boat.

Were do you boat out of??

Thanks! Read through the owners manual twice! Still not sure about one important thing...to run all the equipment while the boat is on shore power, is there a main breaker switch by the shore power inlets that needs to be flipped? While boat is underway (and battery switches are both set to "ON", do I also need to flip switch for "SHIP SYSTEM" to get all equipment to run?

Winter is killing us! Spring fever (i.e. boating fever) has hit early!

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Current: 2000 298 Four Winns Vista
Previous: 1999 Maxum 2300
1994 Four Winns Horizon

Thanks! Hopefully the pun of "sink in better" will refer to boat knowledge! Totally paranoid about boat sinking if shore power fails (winter storm this weekend at an old Marina) and the automatic bilge pump stops working!

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Current: 2000 298 Four Winns Vista
Previous: 1999 Maxum 2300
1994 Four Winns Horizon

As far as all the switches and systems go....
Reading through the owner's manual is always a good place to start when getting a new (to you) boat.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Take with a grain of salt, this is based on a 328 (very similar to the 298) and my memory, which is horrible.

- There are breakers in the transom locker where you plug in the shore power. I've never touched mine, always on.
- There is a main breaker at the fuse panel that selects where you get your 120VAC power from, shore or generator.
- The 'Ship System' switch, by the cockpit table is needed to get 12VDC power to anything in the boat (except bilge pumps, they run direct from the battery).
- There is also a 'Main' 12VDC breaker in the fuse panel, which in line after the ship systems switch mentioned above. Sort of like this: Bilge Pumps <- House Battery -> Ship System Switch -> 12V Main Switch -> 12V Breakers for everything else.

A few points to remember as you randomly attempt to figure it all out yourself:
- The fuse panel switch 'forward bilge' (or something like that) is to manually operate the forward bigle, not to provide power to the forward bilge. If you flip this switch and leave it on, you will likely burn out your forward bilge, since you may not hear it running. With this switch off, it will have power and operate automatically based on it's float position.
- Same goes true for the aft bilge switch at the dash
- Leave the 'Flush' switch in the ON position when you are using the boat - it is the on/off switch for the vacuum pump for the head, which cycles on after each flush to build vacuum in the system
- Only turn on the 'water pump', or 'fresh water' switch on the fuse panel when you have fresh water available in the water tank - otherwise you will burn out your water pump
- In the spring, don't turn on your hot water heater until you have run the hot water tap to make sure the hot water heater actually has water in it. Very it doesn't have a bypass installed, and if so disable it so water flows into the tank. Again, heating an empty tank can't be good.
- Open your sea cocks before you turn on the AC or generator (located under the aft berth) and verify both are happily spitting water out the side of the boat - if not, they will overheat since they aren't being cooled correctly.
- If you have an ice maker in the cockpit, access to the water supply shutoff is under the port side lounger.

I'm sure others will chime in where I've made errors, but those are the things I can think of off the top of my head.

Steve.

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1969 Chris Craft Commander 47
1999 Four Winns 328 Vista - SOLD

Another topic that may confuse you is the battery switches and what the different settings mean:


Each battery selector switch only controls 2 of the batteries, the respective engine and the ship systems battery (you called it 'house')

NORMAL OPERATION 'Battery switch ON'
Ship Systems Battery - All 12V systems not part of an engine, including bilge pumps, windlass
Engine Battery - All engine related tasks, including starting

This is where your switch should typically be.


ENGINE BATTERY DEAD, SHIP SYSTEMS GOOD 'Battery switch SHIP SYSTEMS'
Ship Systems Battery - All 12V systems not part of an engine, including bilge pumps, windlass + All engine related tasks, including starting
Engine Battery - Nothing

You can use this position if your engine battery is not starting the engine, and your ship systems battery is not run down. You might also use this if there is an issue with your engine battery, say an internal short.


EMERGENCY OPERATION 'Battery switch PARALLEL
Ship Systems Battery - All 12V systems not part of an engine, including bilge pumps, windlass + All engine related tasks, including starting
Engine Battery - All 12V systems not part of an engine, including bilge pumps, windlass + All engine related tasks, including starting

You can use this position if both your ship systems and engine battery function, but both are low on available current - this leaves the voltage at 12VDC but sums the current of both batteries. Careful with this one - if you leave it here and say go to the beach or anchor, you can drain both your engine and ship system batteries and have no way to start your engine.

In all cases the breaker labelled 'ship systems' on the battery switch panel allows 12VDC power to flow to all 12V systems that are not engine related, from where ever the selector switch says that power should come from. (OFF,ON and SHIP SYSTEMS - from ship systems battery / PARALLEL - from both engine and ship systems battery). Only the bilge pumps do not run through this breaker.

The batteries will charge (from shore power) regardless of switch position.

Steve.

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1969 Chris Craft Commander 47
1999 Four Winns 328 Vista - SOLD

I agree with the other responders who suggest that fellow boaters at your marina will be happy to help with the ones that you're unsure about. However I suggest that you and your husband can probably figure out most of the switches yourselves, as my wife and I did last summer on our 2000 298 Vista.

To begin with, when shore power is connected, make sure you have the breaker(s) turned on at the shore power connection - both at the box on shore and where the cable connects to the boat connector.

Then, just inside the transom door is a panel with 2 switches, one for the windlass and one for the ship systems. Obviously you'll want to have at least the ship systems breaker turned on.

Following the two steps above will get power to your panel down below. You will have one or two AC System switches in the panel. However many you have, or have enabled (not physically blocked off), turn them on. Your AC Voltmeter should then read 110 volts or so.

The top half of the panel is for AC and the bottom half is for the DC circuits. If you turn the DC Main switch on, provided your batteries have some power, your DC voltmeter should read something like 14 volts or less. If it does, you'll be able to turn the breakers on for any of the DC circuits you want to use (like cabin lights, head lights, etc.).

This should give you a good start.

Best of luck!

Thanks for all the advise!!!

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Current: 2000 298 Four Winns Vista
Previous: 1999 Maxum 2300
1994 Four Winns Horizon