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Old 02-15-2015, 11:10 AM   #21
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My marina is in a high salt spray, very salty air location and poor oversight oc electrical/maintenance.....

Even the new pedestal, covered outlets were bad in a couple years.
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Old 02-15-2015, 11:30 AM   #22
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...needless to say, I will be having a "chat" with them tomorrow. My shipwright tells me they have an electrician on staff at the Harbour Authority. He suggested I try and get them to put in a 30 amp breaker for me, but I seem to remember I mentioned this before and they kinda said "we don't have room for it in our budget this year." And yet the other docks in the facility are 30 amp, go figure. I think they might be trying to prevent the "live aboards" from being too comfortable.


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Old 02-15-2015, 11:46 AM   #23
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I'm in a little different situation as I have a dedicated power plug to my boat.

What I did was to pay the marinas electrician to upgrade my service to 50 amps. It wasn't cheap but I got a new 50 amp outlet out of the deal for my new 50 amp wye adapter.
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Old 02-15-2015, 12:05 PM   #24
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Another Good Electrical Book - PDF

cardude
Take a look at the Reference Material Only thread in this sub-forum
See Post #5 Wayfarer posted a link to an online PDF of another good electrical reference book
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Old 02-15-2015, 01:05 PM   #25
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cardude

Take a look at the Reference Material Only thread in this sub-forum

See Post #5 Wayfarer posted a link to an online PDF of another good electrical reference book

Awesome. Thanks. I also ordered the Calder book.
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Old 02-15-2015, 01:36 PM   #26
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An overloaded electrical cable in our harbor's oldest boathouse caught fire and burned the boathouse and all twelve boats in it and killed a liveaboard couple. Overloaded electrical connectors, cords, and junction or connection boxes are probably the most potentially dangerous thing in a harbor.
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Old 02-15-2015, 01:49 PM   #27
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Ok. Thanks. I'll get that book.

The boat does have two AC units, and they both work using one 30amp cord. I have not run them very long yet however. I need to stare at the electric panel and figure it out. I've only been on the boat three days total so still overwhelmed.
What kind of boat??? Like people have said, usually one circuit is both of your air conditioners. The other is "everything else". If your ACs are working with just one cord, it is very likely that "everything else" is not powered. The biggest thing in this category as your boat sits is the battery charger. Your batteries are not being charged!!! And while all of your 12 volt items may be working, they won't be for long.

As far as the original post... Make sure that you have some sort of securing device that keeps the two connections tightly together. Many times, our cords/adapters just hang there with the weight of the cord on the connection of the cords. If that is the case, the actual contact is highly questionable and count cause....no WILL cause resistance and heat. Add a little bit of rainwater/moisture to the situation and watch out!!! And the new Marinco EEL connections are complete and total crap. I guarantee you some lazy marketing **** thought these up because that is exactly what they are....counting on you being too lazy to jack with a proper connection when you can simply "clamp" it on. The quality of the connection is totally random and at the very least, questionable....not to mention wide open for water intrusion.

I sound like I know what I am talking about here. But I dont. A close friend of mine(he is on here on occasion) is a marine electrician and I was having these issues and we had a discussion while on a boat trip recently. I marched right out and bought all new cords and adapters and screw rings...or whatever you call them. Basically, I have turned over a new leaf in taking care of my cords and monitoring my connections. A month ago, four boats on my dock were destroyed due to fire...don't know the cause....but likely electrical.
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Old 02-15-2015, 01:55 PM   #28
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Many newer electrical panels have a breaker that will allow you to power both busses from one cord. There has to be a switch or lockout breaker....but still possibly there.
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Old 02-15-2015, 02:19 PM   #29
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The dreaded phone call

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Many newer electrical panels have a breaker that will allow you to power both busses from one cord. There has to be a switch or lockout breaker....but still possibly there.

Psneed, Baker,

Funny you mention that. I found out there IS a breaker that allows both busses to be powered by one cord. And it turns out that the battery charger is on that other buss that was turned off during my maiden 3 day voyage. When I got to Indiantown the batteries were pretty low since they hadn't been charging at all when I was plugged in.

Another thing I noticed was that the crank battery seemed weak when I got to Indiantown-- the starter seemed to drag anyway. That doesn't make sense however-- the alternator should have been keeping that one charged up, right? Maybe I just imagined that problem.

It's. 2008 Island Packet PY Cruiser. Kind of like a motorsailer with no sail.
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Old 02-15-2015, 03:55 PM   #30
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The dreaded phone call

Okay...so I'm trying to fiddle-F#%*¥€ around with creating a pigtail out of a 20 amp male end and a 30 amp female end and I don't have the right strippers for the large gauge wire and and then I have the epiphany...I'm trying to build something that will never be as good as a manufactured one and maybe even be hazardous and thinking you idiot...you've got a $200k boat, what are you thinking! So I drive halfway across town and get one of these
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But why in hell does it have to coat almost $200?!?!

..and you're thinking why did the idiot buy a boat in the first place?


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Old 02-15-2015, 05:51 PM   #31
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[QUOTE=JDCAVE;308121[B]]The marina has people come by several times a day to check the cords.
[/B]

They do checks at 3.30am!

I think you should buy that bloke a case of beer.
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Old 02-15-2015, 06:38 PM   #32
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at least weekly inspection strongly recommended. A small spot of corrosion can lead to disaster very quickly, especially if you try to pull more than 20amps through a 20amp outlet. I strongly believe all boats should have AC and DC ammeters.
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Old 02-15-2015, 07:39 PM   #33
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JDCAVE View Post
...needless to say, I will be having a "chat" with them tomorrow. My shipwright tells me they have an electrician on staff at the Harbour Authority. He suggested I try and get them to put in a 30 amp breaker for me, but I seem to remember I mentioned this before and they kinda said "we don't have room for it in our budget this year." And yet the other docks in the facility are 30 amp, go figure. I think they might be trying to prevent the "live aboards" from being too comfortable.


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Going from 20A to 30A on the dock is not just a breaker change, the wire and possibly the conduit as well may need upsizing. To change to a 30 amp breaker without supporting changes would be, lets just say no electrician would do it.
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Old 02-15-2015, 08:28 PM   #34
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JD-- Don't feel bad. You're not alone in having to ante up for a simple electrical adapter.

The portable pumpout carts in our marina use a 30 amp male twist plug on the end of their power cable. The slips have 30 and 50 amp receptacles.

But.... In order to reach the pumpout fittings on the boat we need to position the cart too far down our finger for the cart's cable to reach the dock stand. So we simply unplug our groundpower cable from the boat and plug the pumpout cart into it.

But.... A previous owner fitted a 50 amp groundpower receptacle to our boat. Maybe that's all he had at his slip in SFO Bay, I don't know. When I made up a new, much longer groundpower cord after buying the boat I put a 50 amp female connector on the boat end so we wouldn't have to change the boat's recepticle.

Which means the pumpout cart can't plug into it.

So we had the owner of the marine electric shop we use make us up a 30 amp male to 50 amp female adapter about 2 feet long. The price of the components alone came to well over $100.

I wish it was my name that was the Marin in Marinco...
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Old 02-15-2015, 09:10 PM   #35
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Cardude, most Monk 36s and others are set up with 2- 30 amp inlets, as mentioned earlier, one for the "normal house loads" the other for the air conditioning and heating, In my Monk's case air conditioning is on a separate panel. When I am not going to be using the air conditioning or heaters I only plug in one 30 amp power cord. I do travel with 2, 30 amp cords, and a 50 amp to two 30 amp splitter, when I go to a marina and want airconditioning I can plug in both 30 amp cords if the marina has 2, 30 amp outlets. If the marina has only 50 amp then I plug in the splitter and the two 30 amp cords from it. Write your name and cell phone # on the splitter in case it gets left at the dock they are $$$$$.
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Old 02-15-2015, 09:14 PM   #36
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[QUOTE=Andy G;308291]
Quote:
Originally Posted by JDCAVE;308121[B
]The marina has people come by several times a day to check the cords.

[/B]



They do checks at 3.30am!



I think you should buy that bloke a case of beer.

I'm not so sure about the case of beer, they may be responsible for the problem. I'm moored in the lower Fraser River. We've had a damp winter, a lot of fog and high humidity for a couple of months. I had a good look at the receptacles and they are pretty tired, corroded and some burned out. Whether they upgrade the service or not ( and clearly that's a big proposition), they need to have better receptacles.

That these guys do is wander down the dock and jiggle power cords, several times a day. Over time that practice has to cause fatigue. Furthermore, these towers have a covered set of breakers and a covered set of corresponding receptacles. They keep leaving the receptacle door open to the elements and the contacts vulnerable to corrosion.


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Old 02-15-2015, 09:43 PM   #37
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[QUOTE=JDCAVE;308367]
Quote:
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I'm not so sure about the case of beer, they may be responsible for the problem. ad using Trawler Forum


Ah, rereading your first post, I can see the problem was not at your boat as they advised you, but elsewhere.

Hold onto to the beer.
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Old 02-15-2015, 09:53 PM   #38
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Jim,
Several things I would suggest. They, some, have been suggested but are all over the thread.
-- New cord/adapter -- you' ve done it.
--Lightly coat the terminals of your new plug with dielectric silicone grease, light body, or a good spray even to the point of doing it several times to coat the interior contacts of the receptcle. The plugging in will make metal to metal contact. Redo several times over the season.
--Get the marina to install a NEW receptacle or the old one will do a number on the new plug.
--Is the receptacle box protected from the weather. It often does not take a lot , just keep the weather out of it with a plastic top and side cover. The flip lids are NOT good enough usually except when they are closed. Not much good when the cord is plugged in.
--Tie the cord to the pole or support it somehow. Wiggling and partial disconnects from people walking by/kicking or vibration can cause the plug to partly disconntect.
--If the 20A dock plug is a twist lock then twist it backwards before plugging it into the receptacle. The cable will then have a preload twisting in the locking direction to hold the twist lock prongs in the receptacle. Don't force just the adapter to take the twist alone, use several feet of the entire cord. Don't get carried away as this may damage the cord if twisted too much.



I'm going to add this, had second thoughts, as a discussion point between you and the marina. Get them to change the receptacle to a 30A unit.
That way you will have the benefit of somewhat larger contacts. Only the receptacle. This is frowned upon but may be worth asking about. The circuit breaker, 20A , will remain the same as will the wiring between. You will still only have the 20A capacity but the connection should be more robust. If the electricain is reluctant then take his lead.

If this can be done then you will not need the adapter eliminating one connection.

Maybe later you can get them to upgrade the circuit.
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Old 02-15-2015, 10:06 PM   #39
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I would likely have been thrown out of that marina. Would have flipped the breaker off and replaced the 20 amp receptacle with a 30 amp marine twist lock. This wouldn't have been a problem as the 20 amp breaker would still limit the receptacle and wiring to 20 amps. I would have a much safer electrical connection as a result.

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Old 02-16-2015, 05:55 AM   #40
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I like the swop for a marine 30A socket , it is waterproof.

Even the sockets from Home Cheapo come in a huge variety , from the 59c "contractors special" to the 20A industrial or hospital rated ..

A piece of shock cord and a plastic bag might help, but if possible I would change marinas.

With only house grade sockets , it is probable that your friends on the dock plug in with house hold extension cords.

When these slip into the water they can pass enough electric to PINK every hunk of bronze below the water for many yards.

MUCHUNGOOD!
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