I moved my Catalina 30 to a new slip on a cold windy day; when I connected to shore power at the new slip a circuit breaker blew (I guess) and would not reset for several hours, then blew again. Any ideas? I never saw a reverse polarity indication; the connection cable is a bit warn, could I have plugged it in wrong at either end? I also had problems with my bilge pump, which runs off the batteries -- lost all power.
electrical disaster
- Thread starter Frank Cahill
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If everything worked before ?
I have to with the obvious which is a problem with the shore-power boxes
I have to with the obvious which is a problem with the shore-power boxes
That breaker tripped most likely because a problem on your boat. Now, if you had a large load still connect and plug-in with everything still connected, that may have caused enough of a surge to trip that breaker immediately.
First turn-off the main breaker at your boats control panel, with the breaker off, plug in the shore power cord, then turn on the breaker there at the shore power station.
If it does not trip, go and start bring the loads in on the boat.
If it trips instantly, a problem may have developed on your boats shore power plug connector or the feed wiring to or at your boats control panel.
As far as pluging the wrong way, that's impossible, they are male and female ends.
Sometimes at marinas, boats push the limits on the 30 amp rating of those breakers with demands well over the 85% they are intended, so they may have loads well over 30 amp threshold, and because of this finally become weak and nuisence trip after awhile.
But if that breaker tripped right away and took awile to reset, sounds more like a short-circuit to ground, rather than over-current.
First turn-off the main breaker at your boats control panel, with the breaker off, plug in the shore power cord, then turn on the breaker there at the shore power station.
If it does not trip, go and start bring the loads in on the boat.
If it trips instantly, a problem may have developed on your boats shore power plug connector or the feed wiring to or at your boats control panel.
As far as pluging the wrong way, that's impossible, they are male and female ends.
Sometimes at marinas, boats push the limits on the 30 amp rating of those breakers with demands well over the 85% they are intended, so they may have loads well over 30 amp threshold, and because of this finally become weak and nuisence trip after awhile.
But if that breaker tripped right away and took awile to reset, sounds more like a short-circuit to ground, rather than over-current.
yes, but again
Sorry; confused about how to get the reply in place. I appreciate the suggestions. The harbormaster said they'd check the power module at their end; no word yet. The load I had on the boat was quite small, a couple of light bulbs and a little fan, at most, unless there was something else I didn't know about.
Sorry; confused about how to get the reply in place. I appreciate the suggestions. The harbormaster said they'd check the power module at their end; no word yet. The load I had on the boat was quite small, a couple of light bulbs and a little fan, at most, unless there was something else I didn't know about.
Water heater still on, with no water in it??? Battery Charger just die??
Just the other day a guy in the boat yard took out the 20 amp breaker that fed the standard GFI receptacle that he had his "adapter" plugged into feeding his boat.
The problem was found to be melted insulation on the wires connected to the back of the shore power plug on the boat.
With the low voltage condictions due to the two, one hundred foot #14 awg extention cords being used to power the boat. The fact that boat had a 30 amp breaker for a main. And now there was a 1500 watt heater, the on-board battery charger, and 110 volt 300 watt work-light connected in the boat.
This didn't cause the 20 amp breaker to trip on over-current do to the high-impedence in the run back to the breaker (couple hundred feet from breaker panel to outlet) and barely trip when the circuit shorted where the wire melted together. Had someone not been there and this happen over-night when the yard was closed, he may have started the boat on fire.
Somehow the boat owner could not understand why there was a problem.
I was only glad he was on the other side of yard, far enough away.
He did say he thought something smelled funny though, I'll bet he did....
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