No power to anything until starter installed

[northern]

We have a jetboat with a 350. I took the starter out to service last fall. I did some work on the boat and hooked up the two batteries. I had no power to any of the boat. It has blower, lights, heater, wipers and washdown pump. After several hours of following wires I could not figure out what was wrong. I installed the starter and everything worked. Is this normal that a starter needs to be connected to provide a path for power to the electrical system on a boat. This boat is 21 feet long with a 7 foot beam.

 

[Nater Potater]

They probably use the attaching point on the starter as the source for the whole boat. My guess is that you have more than just the one large red wire from the battery connected to the solenoid on the starter. Any other wires on the same post are what power the rest of the boat.

 

[Ike]

Actually it's more likely that when you removed the starter you lost the ground (the negative side). On most boats the boats ground is either the case of the starter, or starter solenoid, both of which are connected to the engine block (ground) Sounds like in your case it was the starter case.

 

[scoflaw]

Normal, voltage goes from the battery to the starter first. 90 amp fuse located on the starter feeds the boat.

 

[northern]

Things seem fine now. There is large red wire and smaller red wire on solenoid. Found what night be a fuse but it is 30 AMP. There is no fuse link like on the SeaRay inverter. The 9.9 fishing motor has an electric start. It would not work; but was able to start engine by hand and turn off with kill switch. Turned out the 10AMP fuse had popped. Put new one in and all was fine.
Lesson learned do not turn anything on until everything is hooked up. Thanks everyone for your input.