Done a similar job on a static cabin setup rather than a boat, but the principle's the same — old consumer units are an absolute nightmare to shift once they've been in place for years. The previous owner of my place had used some ancient ceramic fuse setup that looked like it belonged in a museum. Took me two full weekends just to trace every circuit before I even touched a single wire.
The bit that caught me out was discovering mid-job that half the runs weren't labelled at all, and what was labelled was wrong. Classic.
Ended up going with a proper Victron shore power setup and a modern ANL fuse block for the DC side. Night and day difference in terms of how tidy the install looks, and I actually trust it now — which matters when you're running inverters and solar charging simultaneously.
On a narrowboat specifically, I'd imagine the damp is an extra layer of misery to deal with? I've seen some horrifying corrosion on connections in marine environments. Did you find any of that when you pulled the old fusebox out?
Also curious what you replaced it with — did you go for a dedicated marine-spec unit or adapt a domestic RCD board? I've seen people do both and there seems to be a genuine debate about which is the smarter route for liveaboards vs occasional-use boats.
Would love to hear how the final install came together. Jobs like this are stressful while they're happening but deeply satisfying once you can flick every breaker and watch everything behave itself properly.
