I have been chasing for some years a relatively minor electrolysis problem. It has been slowly (over 15 years) eating my prop and its turning from gold to pink and pitting quite badly at the tips.. The other day we were raising the anchor at night, something we don’t do often. But I observed small sparks coming off the chain as it went across the front chainplate assembly base that has the bow roller in, clearly suggest it has a voltage on it. With the windlass not doing anything but enabled if I measure between the windlass/gypsy and say the pull pit (which is ground negative)I get about 0.013volts. My understanding is this is not enough to be a problem. However, when the winch is working there is in excess of 5Vdc when the anchor is going up or down. Im guessing maybe more just cant hold the button down for a long time while at anchor.
So my question is could someone measure the same points say between the Windlass metal part and ground or the pull pit if its grounded or a suitable ground and tell me what you see at idle and when you activate the winch. I’m doubtful that the duration of its operation is enough to cause my problem, but equally I don’t believe this is right.
So my question is could someone measure the same points say between the Windlass metal part and ground or the pull pit if its grounded or a suitable ground and tell me what you see at idle and when you activate the winch. I’m doubtful that the duration of its operation is enough to cause my problem, but equally I don’t believe this is right.