Electrical grounding
Grounding is running aground. Doing this deliberately is either a shrewd move to get the boat safely on land or just madness. Now, assuming you mean ELECTRICAL GROUNDING.... 1. I would ASSUME it is because I believe it is required by the boating safety associations, which Hunter would of course subscribe to. Don't take that to the bank on my word however! 2. Since a modern boat is essentially a complex electrical circuit switched on and immersed in water, the smart thing is to have all the electrical components in the boat tied together. This includes ANY metal or other conductors which regularly get wet-- you tell me what that will entail! Seagoing boats have electrical cable connecting bronze thruhulls, stuffing box, spars, thruhulls, engine block, whatever. Pop open a hatch and see if metal stuff going through the hull has ground wire screwed to it. How do they determine what gets tied to what? This forum is not the plce to get that info. Ask the electrician at your yard. I've never done this job and never would without knowing exactly what to hook up to what, and in what order. I have mentioned before that to safegaurd against lightning strikes can be as simple as clamping or shackling a piece of battery cable (or even rigging wire) to a turnbuckle and throwing the end overboard when the weather gets gnarly or when leaving the boat moored. If you do not provide a FAST way for lightning to get to the water, it will find some properly-grounded piece of metal-- like a bronze thruhull on the toilet-- and blow that on the way out, with the expected results. I'd like to know authoritatively from anyone if production Hunters are indeed properly grounded to the official specs (I can't remember the acronym for the boatbuilders' association! --NBBMA?). JC 2
