Townlec Auto Electrical
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Specialist trade

Marine electrical and boat wiring, Townsville.

Saltwater hates electronics. Standard automotive parts don't last. We wire everything from creek boats and trailer rigs up to commercial vessels — proper marine-grade tinned cable, sealed connectors, fused systems and battery isolators that won't seize after a season.

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  • Marine-grade tinned cable as standard
  • Sealed Deutsch / Anderson connections in critical paths
  • Dual & triple battery setups with proper isolators
  • Compliant nav lighting install
What we do

The work, in detail.

Creek boats and trailer rigs

Tinnies and runabouts as much as bigger trailer boats — lights, livewell, sounder, bilge, deck wash and dual battery. A small boat gets the same tinned cable and sealed joints as a big one, because it sits in the same water.

Dual & triple battery systems

Cranking + house + electronics. Victron BMS, DCDC chargers, smart isolators. Solar integration where it makes sense.

Navigation & deck lighting

Compliant nav lights, deck floods, underwater LED, courtesy lighting. Marine-spec, properly sealed.

Electronics install

Sounders, plotters, radios, AIS. Clean install, proper cable runs, supplied wiring spec by manufacturer.

A boat helm with two Garmin displays above a stainless wheel, switch banks either side and Yamaha gauges and binnacle control to starboard
Recent work

Twin plotters, one clean helm.

Two Garmin displays across the top of the dash with a third unit between them, covers on, sitting above a stainless wheel.

Either side of it, the switch banks — a rocker marked down and up for the winch, rows of labelled switches to port, and the Yamaha gauges and binnacle control to starboard.

The screens are the easy part. What decides whether a helm still works in five years is behind the dash: the supply to each unit, the earths, and whether the runs were made so they can be got at again.

Marine and deep cycle batteries
Before and after

The same console, twice.

One boat, one console cavity, photographed on the way in and again on the way out. Look for the NAC-3 autopilot computer and the master switch label — they are in the same place in both, which is the only way to read a before-and-after honestly.

On the way in. Nothing clipped down, runs crossing the autopilot computer, and fuse blocks that have been added to over the years.
On the way out. Same cavity, same computer, same master switch — with every run clipped to the hull and the distribution up where it can be reached.
The work

Different boats, different jobs.

A commercial trawler alongside, a cabin boat out of the water, a trailer rig in for wiring, and the switching, panels and helm work that goes into them. Townlec's own photographs — no catalogue renders, no stock.

A commercial fishing boat alongside. Trawlers and charter boats are the same trade as a trailer rig, with more of it.
The same boat on stands in the shed. Out of the water is when the runs behind the lining can actually be got at.
A Whittley Cruisemaster 700 on its trailer. A boat that can come to the workshop makes the wiring a far easier job than one that cannot.
Twin Garmins and a switch panel that says what each one does — wash down, live well, bilge, deck, flood, nav and anchor.
House, port start, starboard start and an emergency parallel, on two voltage-sensitive relays and a heavy-duty buss. Every switch does one thing and says so.
The same helm finished, with the marina behind it. Sounder, radar, pumps and lighting each on their own breaker, each one named.
Know the symptoms

Signs the wiring is letting go.

Saltwater does not fail things all at once. It works down a wire under the insulation, and the first sign is usually something small and intermittent that gets blamed on the unit it is feeding.

A boat battery locker with two SSB HVT-86D batteries and a Victron Blue Smart charger wired in above them
A battery locker with the charger wired in alongside. Flat batteries on a boat are as often the charging side as the batteries.
  • Nav lights flicker, or one circuit works and the next does not
  • The sounder or plotter drops out when the engine cranks
  • Green or white crust on terminals, crimps and connector pins
  • The bilge pump runs when it should not, or stays quiet when it should not
  • Batteries flat after a weekend on the mooring
  • The VHF transmits poorly, or picks up engine noise
  • Breakers trip under load, or the same fuse keeps going
  • Repairs done with automotive crimps and electrical tape

Recognise a few of those? Bring it in and we'll test it.

Call (07) 4448 3602Request a quote
Why us

Why boats come to an auto electrician.

We diagnose before replacing

A sounder that drops out is not automatically a dead sounder. It is as likely to be the supply, the earth or a connector behind it, and swapping the unit fixes nothing if it is.

Creek boats to commercial vessels

The same trade, at different scale — tinnies and runabouts through to trailer rigs and commercial fishing boats alongside at the wharf.

The electronics you already run

Lowrance, Garmin, Simrad and GME are what we work behind day to day — plotters, sounders, autopilot computers and VHF.

Charging, not just batteries

Cranking and house banks, isolators, voltage-sensitive relays and DC-DC charging. A boat that flattens its batteries every weekend usually has a charging problem, not a battery problem.

Circuits you can read

Switch panels labelled for what they actually do — wash down, live well, bilge, deck lights, nav and anchor — so the next person is not guessing at three in the morning.

Auto electricians first

The same people who chase intermittent faults, parasitic drains and charging problems on trucks and machinery. Salt makes it harder; it does not make it a different trade.

Brands we use

Stocked for the job.

Full catalogue →
Image coming soon
Lithium Starting

LS24V100C-BT SSB Lithium Starting Car Battery

$3,099.00
Image coming soon
Lithium Starting

LS200C-BT SSB Lithium Starting Car Battery

$3,099.00
Image coming soon
Lithium Starting

LS24V100C SSB Lithium Starting Car Battery

$2,999.00
Image coming soon
Lithium Starting

LS200C SSB Lithium Starting Car Battery

$2,999.00
Where we work

Marine work along the coast.

Boats come to the Townsville workshop from a long way up and down the coast — Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays, Bowen, and the Burdekin at Ayr, Alva Beach and Cungulla to the south; Magnetic Island across the water; and north through Ingham and Lucinda, Cardwell, Mission Beach and on towards Cairns. Ring us with the boat and where it is and we will work out the best way to do the job. The truck, machinery and fleet side is in the same building, so if it turns out to be batteries or charging rather than wiring, it is the same people either way.

Auto electrician TownsvilleCharging faults, wiring, diagnostics and intermittentsBatteriesMarine and deep cycle, tested before anything is replacedVictronChargers, DC-DC converters and monitoringHulk 4x4Winches and pure sine invertersLokaBoxElectronic locking — boats are one of its fitmentsAuto electrician in TownsvilleThe workshop, its hours and the areas it coversAyr and the BurdekinCane country and the Burdekin coastBowenBoats, fleet and machinery south of TownsvilleThe WhitsundaysAirlie Beach and the marinasInghamThe Herbert and the Lucinda end of the coast
FAQ

Marine questions, answered.

Can you work on bigger commercial vessels?+
Yes — happy to scope wiring jobs on commercial fishing, charter and barge work.
Do you carry Victron stock?+
Yes, a large range — chargers, DC-DC converters, BMS and monitoring. If we do not have your exact unit on the shelf we can order it in; tell us the model and we will let you know where it stands.
What makes marine wiring different from automotive?+
Salt air gets into a joint and corrodes it from the inside, so a connection that would last years in a car can go high-resistance in a season on the water. Marine work uses tinned cable, sealed connections and fusing sized for the run, and it matters most in the places nobody looks — behind a lining, under a deck, inside a console.
Why do my boat batteries keep going flat?+
Usually one of three things: the charging side is not putting back what the boat takes out, something is drawing current while it sits, or the cranking and house banks are not properly separated so a night of lights leaves nothing to start on. They are three different repairs and only one of them is a new battery, which is why it gets tested first.
Can you install a sounder or plotter I have already bought?+
Yes. Lowrance, Garmin, Simrad and the rest — mounted, wired on its own protected supply, with the transducer and network runs done properly rather than tucked behind a panel. Bring the unit and the boat and we will work out where it should go.
Can you set up a dual battery system on my boat?+
Yes — cranking and house separated, with an isolator or a voltage-sensitive relay so the motor always has something to start on. What suits depends on what the boat runs and how long it sits between trips, so tell us that and we will spec it.
Do you do navigation and deck lighting?+
Yes. Nav lights, anchor lights, deck floods and cabin lighting, wired to their own circuits and switched off a labelled panel so you can see which is which.
Where does the work get done?+
Boat electrical work is run out of the Townsville workshop. How a particular job is best handled depends on the vessel and where it sits — ring us with what it is and where it is, and we will work out the best way to do it.
I am not in Townsville — can you still do my boat?+
Often, yes, and a boat is a different question from a car. A trailer rig gets towed anyway, and a working vessel moves up and down the coast as a matter of course, so where you keep it matters less than you might think. Tell us where the boat is, what it is and what it needs, and we will work out how to do the job.
Next step

Saltwater finds every shortcut in a wiring job. Let's not leave it any.

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