What is a bussbar for? seems like a waste
 

Hi Guys just going through the wiring on my boat to eliminate the extra crap the previous owner installed and I want to update the old school glass fuses.
It seems to me that Having a bussbar is an interruption of an otherwise solid wire?
whats the purpose of them?

are you talking a power/ground distribution block or a bus bar?? The bus bar simplifies wiring. you can wire in sections ie; the bilge. its simpler to wire a section at a time as opposed to running a bunch of wires at onece from front to back and trying to get the length right etc. It can also make things removeable easier. all my switches etc are in a console between the seats and I am going to use weather pack connectors instead of bus bars. If I ever need to pull the console for any reason I can just unplug it Also made it a lot easier to wire the console out of the boat instead of contorting myself in a tight space.

i thought a busbar was where you get a beer while riding on the bus.

Man I got to get on public transportation more often . Obama got Bus Bars now.

A buss bar is usually used as a common point for either positive or negative voltage or both. In a car you have the metallic chassis/body acting as the negative buss and the positive is carried by the wiring. Using a Buss bar for all the grounds means they all have contact and this keeps down current leakage and RFI interference. It can also be a good way for the builder to interface the boat's wiring with the engine's wiring, since the two are wired separately.

I was able to clean up my wiring considerably by running two bus bars, one for positive and one for ground, up to my instrument panel and cabin. I ran a heavy cable up to it to carry the voltage. This eliminated a lot of the extra grounds and power leads that were going back to the battery terminals, and it also allowed me to isolate the circuits for the lights and gauges from the ones for the stereo.