Electrocution at Lake Pleasant, AZ

[Maine Sail]

Problem is the ABYC standards are voluntary and too many DIY's, & supposed "Pro's", that don't actually know what they are doing with marine AC wriing, are working on AC wiring.. All it takes is an incorrect neutral/grounding bond, on-board the a vessel, to cause an ESD. Most ESD's are cause by faulty boat wiring rather than faulty marina wiring. Will be interesting to see what they find in this one. I am going to guess Kevin Ritz and a few others are already helping investigate this one.

Sadly it was their own boat, with faulty wiring and bypassed electrical safety systems, that apparently killed them both. I will say this again as I have said many times. If you don't understand AC marine wiring at a very high level, PLEASE HIRE AN ABYC PROFESSIONAL WHO DOES! AC is deadly!

“The victim’s boat had an electrical connection system which was not compatible with the marina’s receptacle,” MCSO explained in a news release. “Electrical safety features were bypassed by the intentional and improper modification of the boat’s electrical connection system.”

 

[jviss]

"...the electrical inspector with the City of Peoria and an electrical engineer who specializes in the construction of marinas took a look at the scene on Monday. They determined "the Scorpion Bay Marina’s electrical infrastructure was operating properly and safely,” MCSO said Wednesday."

“The victim’s boat had an electrical connection system which was not compatible with the marina’s receptacle,” MCSO explained in a news release. “Electrical safety features were bypassed by the intentional and improper modification of the boat’s electrical connection system.”

Boat of brothers who died at Lake Pleasant had electrical issues, MCSO says "Electrical safety features were bypassed ..."

This brings up an interesting topic: should there be strict rules about shore power systems on boats, in terms of who may modify them, required inspections, etc.?

 

[Maine Sail]

"...the electrical inspector with the City of Peoria and an electrical engineer who specializes in the construction of marinas took a look at the scene on Monday. They determined "the Scorpion Bay Marina’s electrical infrastructure was operating properly and safely,” MCSO said Wednesday."

“The victim’s boat had an electrical connection system which was not compatible with the marina’s receptacle,” MCSO explained in a news release. “Electrical safety features were bypassed by the intentional and improper modification of the boat’s electrical connection system.”

Boat of brothers who died at Lake Pleasant had electrical issues, MCSO says "Electrical safety features were bypassed ..."

This brings up an interesting topic: should there be strict rules about shore power systems on boats, in terms of who may modify them, required inspections, etc.?

There are very strict specifications for how a boat should be wired, to ABYC standards, however these are not enforceable by law like NEC/NFPA land based guidelines.

In my opinion every boat on the water should be wired to ABYC standards especially for the AC wiring. Sadly, the vast majority are not.

How about this guy, who was completely oblivious to his boats issues. He also did his own AC wiring. That 1.98A leakage is multiple times the lethal amount required to kill a human..

 

[jviss]

There are very strict specifications for how a boat should be wired, to ABYC standards, however these are not enforceable by law like NEC/NFPA land based guidelines.

In my opinion every boat on the water should be wired to ABYC standards especially for the AC wiring. Sadly, the vast majority are not.

How about this guy, who was completely oblivious to his boats issues. He also did his own AC wiring. That 1.98A leakage is multiple times the lethal amount required to kill a human..

Wow, that's scary.

Regarding "every boat on the water should be wired to ABYC standards," well, that's not going to happen, as you know; and there are lots of boats out there built before the standards fully evolved, I think. But as far as the AC is concerned, even though I'm pretty much a libertarian, I would like to see enforcement at the interface point: if you are going to plug into the public infrastructure, your boat must comply! This would be AC only, of course. I wonder if a test could be devised, so that one could ascertain quickly whether a boat was safe or not?

 

[walt]

But.. if the marina dock AC source had working ELCI, it would be impossible for a problem like this to occur.

You cant control what is implemented on a boat but in this case and if the dock had ELCI, when these guys plugged the boat into the dock power, the ELCI would have tripped shutting off power to the boat. Then the problem is that folks think its then time to modify the dock power source rather than fix the problem on their boat. A friend has seen this actually happen on the marina I use during the winter that has GFCI on every dock AC outlet..

 

[justsomeguy]

“Electrical safety features were bypassed by the intentional and improper modification of the boat’s electrical connection system.”

Is that another way of saying they used a typical extension cord?

 

[AlastairLC]

Probably. Scorpion Bay just emailed us warning us not to do that.

 

[Maine Sail]

Wow, that's scary.

Regarding "every boat on the water should be wired to ABYC standards," well, that's not going to happen, as you know; and there are lots of boats out there built before the standards fully evolved, I think. But as far as the AC is concerned, even though I'm pretty much a libertarian, I would like to see enforcement at the interface point: if you are going to plug into the public infrastructure, your boat must comply! This would be AC only, of course. I wonder if a test could be devised, so that one could ascertain quickly whether a boat was safe or not?

Well, as marinas come into NEC/NFPA compliance, where ground fault protection is required, boats that trip the shore-side GF protection are being told in no uncertain terms "You are not allowed to plug into our marina until your boat is fixed". The newer land based requirements are helping to weed out the unsafely wired boats.

Sadly, until a marina touches the dock wiring, they are grandfathered into an unsafe shore power system, with no ground fault protection, where unsafe boats can plug in and never trip a breaker, yet they can still kill a swimmer.

 

[walt]

Sadly, until a marina touches the dock wiring, they are grandfathered into an unsafe shore power system,

Wonder how the marina's insurance plays into this. Say someone plugs an unsafe boat with a major ground fault (like the one in this thread) into a marina AC source with only conventional breakers and earth ground protection but no ground fault protection. Someone not associated with the dangerous boat accidentally falls in the water near the dangerous boat and dies from ESD. Guy leaves behind a family and the brother in law is a liability lawyer.

Can the marina be held liable because they chose not to install the ground fault equipment (to code) or would they claim they are not liable because they were "grandfathered in" to an old standard.

And of course if someone modifies the dock shore power to disable ground fault protection because it keeps tripping every time they plug in, they might want to make sure they have good insurance coverage.

 

[AlastairLC]

The word around Scorpion Bay Marina is that the new owner of the boat, who died, had a home made shore power cord wired wrong. The positive lead was grounded to the engine block and current went through the drive into the water.
After my encouragement my bottom cleaning friend checked today and 0.36 volts were in the water near the dock. He had never checked before. So it seems like there’s always some juice in marina water.
Returning from my sail today I saw several small children swimming at the dock with mother watching. Go figure.

 

[jviss]

The positive lead was grounded to the engine block

What does this mean? Do you mean the "hot" wire was swapped with the neutral in the cord, and the neutral was grounded in the boat?

(There's no 'positive' lead in an AC service.)

 

[AlastairLC]

Doesn’t make much sense to me either but that’s the word going around.

 

[justsomeguy]

saw several small children swimming at the dock with mother watching.

 

[dlochner]

The word around Scorpion Bay Marina is that the new owner of the boat, who died, had a home made shore power cord wired wrong. The positive lead was grounded to the engine block and current went through the drive into the water.

Earlier in this thread and else where @Maine Sail has cautioned about working with AC wiring and not fully understanding how dangerous AC is and why it needs to be wired correctly. The confusion in terminology, i.e., hot vs positive, is but one example and points to the dearth of knowledge about AC systems on boats.

It is not what we don't know that hurts us, it is what we know that ain't so that does us in. This sad event may be an unfortunate illustration of that aphorism.

 

[AlastairLC]

Another (more believable?) version has him grounding his AC to the engine block.

 

[jviss]

Another (more believable?) version has him grounding his AC to the engine block.

Why is that so unbelievable? The block is usually connected to the DC ground, DC negative. By "grounding his AC" I assume you mean the green-wire ground, correct? Isn't this supposed to be connected to DC ground?

 

[dlochner]

Why is that so unbelievable? The block is usually connected to the DC ground, DC negative. By "grounding his AC" I assume you mean the green-wire ground, correct? Isn't this supposed to be connected to DC ground?

In shore based wiring the AC neutral (white) and the AC Ground (green) are connected at the panel. If he applied this thinking to his AC wiring on the boat then it would be an easy and fatal mistake to make. This is the kind of mistake we've been warned about.

I'm working on a 65' steel schooner right now. The AC and DC systems are a mess. A bunch of well intended folks wired the vessel as if it was a home and it has caused a lot of issues. Fortunately, no one has died.

 

[walt]

what would make sense is a serious error connecting the AC hot wire to the engine block (isnt black always ground???) but NOT connecting the green earth to the engine block (direct or through some sort of isolation). The black and white could have still been connected to AC loads that apparently would be working just fine.

If the green wire would have been connected to the engine block, and the black hot AC wire was incorrectly connected to the engine, it would have blown a fuse and prevented the problem.

The marina must not have ground fault detection as this would definitely have tripped and never allowed power to the boat.

 

[BigEasy]

Please correct me if I am wrong.
AC ground wire (green) is never connected to a ground point on the boat (engine, keel, etc.). The boat's AC system is grounded thru the green ground wire and into the marina shore power system.

 

[dlochner]

Please correct me if I am wrong.
AC ground wire (green) is never connected to a ground point on the boat (engine, keel, etc.). The boat's AC system is grounded thru the green ground wire and into the marina shore power system.

The AC ground wire is connected to the boat's DC ground connection at the engine block or ground bus. As I understand it, this is to protect the DC system from an accidental short to the AC ground as might happen in a charger or inverter.

The AC Neutral (white) and the AC Ground (green) should never be connected on the boat. (There are a couple of exceptions when using a generator and an inverter, not relevant in this thread).