Hi Steve
Sure, no problem at all. On a side note I completely forgot to relay an
experience I had only 3 weeks ago at a dock in Warwick, Rhode Island. An
owner called me and told me he thought his dock did not have enough power.
He was a liveaboard who had not left the dock in two years.
Ok so I go there and if his TV, lights, heater were on all was fine, if he
used the microwave, stove or oven he had a brown out. The first thing I did
was get my adapter from the shore power three pin down to regular houseold
three pin and the little three led tester I carry. It is all one piece with
LED's on it to show Ok, reverse polarity, no neutral, no ground and ground
fault. It plugs directly in a wall outlet.
Ok so I plug into the dock and all is green, Plug into his end of his shore
power line and all is good, I plug it directly into his boat outlet and it
goes ballistic. Next I check his power panel. Ahhhh look at this. His
neutral and ground were bonded, and the neutral had corroded away years ago
apparently, so he never knew and he had been returning ALL his power through
the common ground to the dock and all his neighbors who were also
incorrectly bonded. This finally and apparently this season burned away what
was not corroded and now the only return path was the bonding on the boat.
Yes his DC electrical system and engine were common bonded with the AC
ground. His prop/shaft/zinc were conductive enough to the water (a mostly
freshwater river around 10 US miles from the ocean) to allow almost all his
boat to run correctly and he never knew. We ran new wire from his shore
power plug to his panel, disconnect his DC ground from the system and he's
good to go now. However I dare say he has a swiss cheese prop or non
existant prop at this time. We're talking 10-20 amps contunuous discharge
for several months here.....
The short of it is has his neutral and ground not been bonded he'd have
known immediately when a problem arose before any damage was done. Secondly
that little $5 tester I have he now owns and I have another. I have one in
each of my boats and at least 20-25% of the docks I visit have either
reversed polarity, a ground fault or a neutral fault and I immediately
disconnect from their system. Sure it will work but my zinc pays the price
and then I do in the end. I once asked both Viking yachts and Ocean yachts
WHY they bond neutral and ground on their boats and the response I got was
"If there is a ground or neutral problem on the docks, and many have them
then nothing works and they call about wiring problems. If we bond them
everything works, they dont call and it's less hassle" My next question was
why couldnt they put a simple tester aboard and wire the boat correctly so
the owner can see it's the dock's problem. They both said they were
implementing that as were most companies now. Keep in mind this was several
years ago and I indeed see panels so equipped now. But this doesn't help
those who have the old school system.
In the end it's your life, your equipment, your boat and your
responsibility to make sure it's done correctly. I also survey, and at my
last seminar it came down that we are to now look for this very bonding
problem, and we are asked to list it in the survey if it's incorrect. We
dont HAVE to but we are asked to. Also a large american insurance company
recently (fall of 05) had me survey a burned boat, I found common bonding
for the engine, ground and neutral. The fire started of all places in the
bilge, starboard aft at the rudder bearing just behind and below an old
seepy diesel tank. The bonding wire had heated and burned in two. The area
was storage, old life jackets, oil, cleaning rags, old dock lines, you get
the picture. The problem is why did it burn? Answer was an electric heater
and other things were running, a common bond grounding system and the total
loss of ground and neutral at his broken down old power jack on the dock.
SO.... instead of his appliances dying they continued to operate and all
return power went to the closest ground to his panel, which was that rudder
bearing and aluminium rudder and zinc. It was only 16ga wire and wouldnt
take it, it heated, the rags or whatever caught and thats that. Others saw
the smoke, uses hoses and extinguishers and put it out but not before the
boat had enough damage to make it a CTL. (Complete total loss) uneconomical
to repair.
Now it's in litigation and will be for quite awhile because who's at fault.
His boat was wired incorrectly or it would have never happened, However had
the dock been wired correctly it would not have happened either. Even when I
reconnected the wires on the dock I found the neutral to still be dead and
it was still reverse polarity. Had he or the boats prior to him been
correctly wired, they and the dock owner would have known because nothing on
the boat would have worked. Had the boat been equipped with a tester again
somebody would have known. Has the boat been correct no fire, had the dock
been correct again no fire. SO who gets to pay for the boat? The court will
decide but for now the insurance company is refusing to pay a dime and thats
the bottom line.
The adjuster also informed me that the policy will be changing to require
all boats they insure from this spring on to not only be surveyed, but
complete electrical inspections by the surveyor and common bonded systems
will not be insured until corrected. Things are changing and these things
are easy to correct by any do it yourself type.
The tester I use is similar to this one, commom and found at any radio
shack store (US)
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the description is terrible and it does not tell you what all it tests for
on the page but it covers it all and tests ground fault breakers wondefully.
If you push the button and the GFI breaker doesnt trip then you have a
commond neutral/ground on your boat etc etc etc.
Anyway i've written most of the old testiment it seems here but if it saves
one boat or one life or one bad experience it was time well spent.
Cheers
Claude
V1460
