I suspect your friend has bad info. Electric Shock Drowning (ESD) is exceedingly rare in salt water, to the point of being almost non-existent. Virtually all cases of ESD occur in freshwater and there are easily viewed statistics bearing this out. That said, I unplug every boat I work on, because you only have to get electrocuted once to ruin your day.
Knowing that I would only be in the water for a short while and also having to manipulate a tiny GoPro camera, I chose not to wear gloves. Any other time, I'd have them on.
That is the key to avoid shocks.
Not completely in fresh water. If you're in fresh water and a boat on one side has a wiring fault, then power will try to get to nearby boats or grounds. This will create a voltage potential in the water itself, and your relatively salty body will be the wire between the voltage on one side and the other. Certainly it's worse if you touch the hot or cold sides directly, but you're not immune just being in the water. In salt water you're not a better wire than the water around you, so it's not so bad.That is the key to avoid shocks.
You must be "grounded" for any electric current pass through your body.
I am assuming your "wet suit" has rubber boots and perhaps you use flippers.
Your gloves perhaps are rubber too.
If you disconnect the AC ground on the boat by unplugging, you have eliminated most of the "grounding" possibilities.
Jim...
When I lived in Florida, I would usually move my boat out of the marina to a spot with a bit of current. Much better visibility, and no stray current (electrical).
There are several vendors who sell a shock alarm that detects stray current. I bought some for my yacht club since the small boat sailors sometimes end up in the water...
My boat gets hauled out every fall and I repaint the bottom every spring,thus I have zero experience with this so I'm curious:
How often depends on where you are. In Florida, my boat's bottom needed cleaning once or twice a month. I always did it myself, so I don't know costs. I hauled every two years or so and repainted the bottom. In New England, I clean the bottom two or three times a season, and, of course, the boat gets hauled each fall. I use Hydracoat, so I touch up the bottom paint each spring, and put on a fresh coat every two or three years.
Depends upon where your boat is kept. Fresh water, brackish or sea water. It also depends upon exactly where geographically in whatever of those types of water your boat is in.
Cleaning frequencies and prices vary widely from region to region. Here in the Bay Area, we clean every two months and the going rate is $3/foot. In Southern California, cleaning happens very 3-4 weeks but the price is about half what we get up here. These relatively frequent cleanings means the bottom can always be cleaned gently, thereby extending the useful lifespan of the anti fouling paint. Not unusual to have boats go 3-4 years between haulouts for paint here.
