No Power To Dash

well I went up this weekend armed with a wiring diagram, my mulitmeter, and some spare parts I "borrowed" from the '88. started at the battery and worked my way to the dash. everything checked out so I hit the ignition breaker and turned the key...everything worked fine and continued to work fine the rest of the weekend. must be loose connection or bad ground under the dash...but, I won't go looking for trouble until it's out for the winter.

Wow,   This is just way too spooky!

Your '88 looks exactly like her '89!

All I did was roll her hour meter forward 12 hrs. and everything came back on.

With the exception of the clock, the gauges work on 12v ignition power, not 12v battery power... so your thinking would be correct. Jumping them to the battery power would make them move.

If you had no power to the dash at all, I would bet good money that Steve is correct above... check all the connections to your battery cables.

I used to have a short somewhere (bilge pump or blower) and would make the 50 amp breaker in the back of the engine trip and cut all power...

Sounds like a bad ground or connection somewhere. I've seen where a battery cable terminal looked good from outside, but had corrosion in the crimped fitting. Take a 12 volt test light for sure..

We were in Ludington over the weekend and your right ... weather kinda sucked...

That is kinda creepy! I know that is no help but what a weird story!

wel my '93 just rolled 666 hours and left me dead on the water . went out this morning to wakeboard in the 50 degree weather and wind up in northern MI...after riding for a bit, emptying the fat sacs, and sitting in a wind protected cove for a bit...noting happened. no power to the dash gauges, won't start, nothing. fortunately it was 50 and misting...and I didn't have a paddle since this boat has never given me one single problem. we drifted for a bit and then i decided to swim it to shore. after a few minutes a friend of mine on lake came cruising by and towed me in.
since this boat is about 4.5 hours away now and I didn't have the proper tools to diagnose i need to have replacement parts (if needed) the next time I go up.
it should be noted that this same thing almost happened yesterday morning too. i turned the key, hit the ignition switch, the gauges came on, i hit the blower switch, it came on momentarily, and then everything died. i took off the panels to check the connections on the key switch and the breaker switches...everything looked fine. put the panels back on and everything was working again somehow.
today i couldn't check much due to my lack of tools. the main breaker was on, all the connections looked good...i bridged the spade connectors on the back of the ignition breaker switch with the key in the run position and nothing happened...that's about all I did.
my guess is the key switch is bad. i'll bring the proper tools and my multi meter up next time to do a proper diagnosis...but, are there any other parts I should have ready?? is it just the demon 666 hours messing with me??