fuse in grounding system on beneteau ?

[svenusa]

Im trying to replace a grounding wire (braided copper) that grounds my keel bolts to the rest of the boat grounds. The copper was destroyed by water in the bilge, so my keel bolts are currently not grounded to anything. It looks like there is a fuse (or something that looks like a fuse) in the ground braid. Any idea what this may be for ?All I can think of, is either it blows if the boat gets struck by lightning, or its some kind of current shunt. Any thoughts ??

 

[GuyT]

could be a galvanic isolator

Galvanic isolation is done electronically by diodes - might be diodes - not a fuse. I have never seen a fuse in a ground.

 

[Ross]

if there is a fuse in the ground lead and

it blows then your system is no longer grounded. Therefore it MUST be something other than a fuse. But I can't imagine what.

 

[Gord May]

Grounding Isolation Bridge

See:Marine Grounding Systems ~ by Stan Honeyhttp://members.cox.net/pc-usa/station/marine%20grounding.htmExcerpt:“The RF ground needs to be a ground for RF signals only. It does not need to conduct DC, and as you do not want to connect another DC ground to your engine and to your keel etc. The solution is to find a dry secure place along each of the copper RF ground tapes that are running to your engine and keel. Fasten the tape securely to an insulating piece of phenolic or to a terminal strip, cut a 1/10-inch gap across the tape, and solder several 0.15uF ceramic capacitors across the gap. These capacitors will be transparent to the RF, which will be happily grounded by the ground tape system, but they will block any DC currents from running through the RF ground system, and will avoid any resulting susceptibility to hot marina electrolytic corrosion. It is worth selecting the capacitors carefully, because they may carry a significant amount of RF current.”

 

[Debra B]

Capacitor

If this is an RF ground, the thing you are looking at is probably a capacitor.Capacitors are transparent to RF frequency (depends on frequency and rating of capacitor), while they block DC currents.Read the attached link through to the end... there is even a photo of how the capacitors were handled in this case.

 

[Caleb]

Svenusa Can you take a picture of it?

Is there any marks or writing on it?