My 30amp 110v Shore Power inlet is missing

Hi folks,

I just brought my new-to-me boat from Sausalito to Channel Islands, CA. The trip went well and everything worked great. In Sausalito the boat had a 50amp plug-in at the dock. My new dock only has 30amp service.

Yesterday I went to the boat with several 30a cords and proceeded to try everything in the world, but could not get any power to my boat. Finally, I removed a speaker, which gave me visual access to the back of the plug-ins on my boat. Out of two 50amp plugs and two 30amp plug-ins available on my boat, only one of the 50amp plugs was even wired! One of the 30amp plugs has cut off wires attached to the rear, but no wiring to my breaker panel.

So, I need to re-establish 30amp service on my boat in order to charge my batteries. Shouldn't it just involve running new wiring from the plug-in to the breaker panel? If so, it sounds like something I could tackle my self. My only problem is that I am leaving in two days to do the Baja Bash aboard my friend's boat. So my boat will be sitting for up to 2 weeks with no shore power.

I did run the generator yesterday and fully charged my house bank. I think if I shut everything except the bilge pumps, I should be okay. Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Cheers, Bill

Close all your seacocks and you should be fine. But I don't own your insurance.

Greetings,
Mr. M. Congrats on your successful delivery trip. What I would do and this is only me, is immediately arrange for a marine electrician to do what is necessary to get power to your boat and the charger. This is, as you say, a new-to-you vessel. At this point, even though you may have a very good survey, you know nothing of it's idiosyncrasies. The wiring is amiss but for what reason? Call an electrician. You need not be there for the work to be done.
Failing that, I would cancel your trip and take care of business. There's always next year on your own boat.

Personally, I would NOT take any chances but it's your boat...

I know it's unlikely, but by chance is your 50 amp inlet 120 volt? If so a simple adapter will solve your problem. HBL61CM56 Hubbell

With two abandoned 30A inlets, my guess would be that the boat was originally wired for two 30A shore connections, and at some point along the way a previous owner converter to utilize a single 50A 240V cord.

First step is to get someone who knows what they are doing to sort out what you actually have. From there you can evaluate adapter alternatives.

Worst case, you can use a dual 30A to single 50A 240V reverse Y, but it will require two 30A outlets on your dock, and they will have to be from opposite legs of a 240A service.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. M. Congrats on your successful delivery trip. What I would do and this is only me, is immediately arrange for a marine electrician to do what is necessary to get power to your boat and the charger. This is, as you say, a new-to-you vessel. At this point, even though you may have a very good survey, you know nothing of it's idiosyncrasies. The wiring is amiss but for what reason? Call an electrician.

Personally, I would NOT take any chances but it's your boat...

Click to expand...

Totally agree. Call a marine electrician.

30 A -- 50 A shore power

What year is your new boat ?

There is one more option that you may have that was used on older boats prior to 2000.

It is a 120 Volt 50 amp service cord. This is a 3 wire service.

It is different that the 120 / 240 V 50 A service plug that has 4 wires.

Also Marinco makes a nice adapter that takes 30 A & adapts it to 50 A or visa versa for you.

Check out their web site.

Good luck.

Alfa Mike

Thanks for the replies everybody. The boat is a 1991, and the 50amp service is 220v. I will hire an electrician to get things sorted out, but it will have to wait until I return in a couple of weeks. All good advice, Thank you.


Cheers, Bill

My boat originally came with a pair of 50A 125 inlets and the appropriate breakers and wiring. The PO downgraded them to 30A 125 inlets to be able to find power at many marinas that doo not have the older outlets. Although I do not have any 220v on the boat I upgraded to a 50/125/250 inlet as this is the new normal around my area. I made a splitter to 2 x 30 amp and have a Marinco splitter from 2 x 30 to 1 x 30 on board for those Marinas that only offer 30A when I travel. Because I have no need for 220v I do not need a "smart Y" and saved a bit by making the Y myself. The abandoned 30 A inlet is still in place. At some time in the future I may rewire it as a 30A OUTLET so that I can power another boat from the Genny, using a lockout or other safety device as appropriate. To do the upgrade to 50/125/250 safely the Boat panel on a 120v only system need to have two separate buss bars and the appropriate breakers and wire sizing.

Where did you tie the neutrals together Gary?

On my Paneltronics factory panel, the neutrals are tied together on the panel rear.

Their website has great wiring diagrams for most panels.

I have no 250 sub panels or breakers.

There are 2 hot breaker busses, on the 250 pole feed, 110 busses, but still 180 degrees out.

psneeld said:

On my Paneltronics factory panel, the neutrals are tied together on the panel rear.

Their website has great wiring diagrams for most panels.

I have no 250 sub panels or breakers.

There are 2 hot breaker busses, on the 250 pole feed, 110 busses, but still 180 degrees out.

Click to expand...

Thanks

I use an adapter, 2 30,s into a 50. Although it took some figuring out, I was obsessed. No I would never leave my boat without shore power for even a weekend let lone a few weeks. I wouldn't be able to sleep. I keep my air conditioners on at the marina and need to have the breaker on for my shower drain so the water doesn't collect. I turned around the other day while heading home because I couldn't remember if I flipped the breaker. Of course I did and it would not have sunk overnight but hey, thats me.

Do you have someone at the marina to watch it for you? I'm nervous just thinking about it.

Donna said:

I keep my air conditioners on at the marina and need to have the breaker on for my shower drain so the water doesn't collect.

Click to expand...

Just a heads-up: a couple years ago, the discharge hose from one of our ACs popped off the barb fitting... big mess, 'cause all that raw water was spewing into that (slightly hidden, unless opened up on purpose) interior area... Hint to self: inspect the hoses and connections often!

-Chris

ranger42c said:

Just a heads-up: a couple years ago, the discharge hose from one of our ACs popped off the barb fitting... big mess, 'cause all that raw water was spewing into that (slightly hidden, unless opened up on purpose) interior area... Hint to self: inspect the hoses and connections often!

-Chris

Click to expand...

That has already happened once! It's not going to happen again!!

Hi Donna:
Forget rewiring anything, just buy a 30amp to 50amp adapter. Perfectly fine to step up from a 30amp outlet to a 50amp inlet. Might need to buy doublle 30amp to 50amp and simply tape over the unused 30amp end.

Chrisjs said:

Hi Donna:
Forget rewiring anything, just buy a 30amp to 50amp adapter. Perfectly fine to step up from a 30amp outlet to a 50amp inlet. Might need to buy doublle 30amp to 50amp and simply tape over the unused 30amp end.

Click to expand...

+1

I use the 30 to 50 amp adaptor and have for years

sunchaser said:

+1

I use the 30 to 50 amp adaptor and have for years

Click to expand...

I agree. If you move around cruise you will probably need adaptors. The real question is what the boats wiring is rated for and the breaker is rated to the wire. What the plug is secondary.

Since his 50 amp inlet is 250 volt, he will need two 30 amp outlets on the dock and $300 reverse Y adapter to make it work. Hubbell YQ230

johnrupp said:

Where did you tie the neutrals together Gary?

Click to expand...

John, I have a single neutral Buss bar for the panel from the factory. All neutrals are tied to this buss EXCEPT the Inverter operated items which has it's own Neutral buss bar that is isolated when the inverter is in operation and tied when the shorepower relay is on.

HopCar said:

Since his 50 amp inlet is 250 volt, he will need two 30 amp outlets on the dock and $300 reverse Y adapter to make it work. Hubbell YQ230

Click to expand...

Depends on what he needs to run on 250 volt. My boat has a 50 amp 250 volt inlet. I use a simple Marinco 30 to 50 adapter and can run everything except the air conditioners. Since I'm in the PNW I don't need air conditioning often. When I do I can just run the generator.

I run a 50 (boat) to 30 amp (dock) Furion adapter fot my 125/250V boat setup.

It powers both 110 busses, but I do have to load manage.

Hi folks,

Thanks for the great responses. I finally returned from Mexico and was able to give the electrical problem some attention. For the 3 weeks that I was away, I had everything switched off except the bilge pumps, and had my wife run the genny every week or so. Not perfect, but you do what you have to.

Anyway, I met a marine electrician at the boat yesterday, and he was able to fix the problem in about an hour and a half. With me helping, we found the disconnected wiring to one of the 30 amp sockets, tested the connections to be sure that they were still good, then re-connected the 30 amp plug socket on my boat. Presto! 30 amp service again!

I did buy the reverse wye, two 110v 30's into 50amp 240v, and will try to figure out how to use that at the dock.

Thanks again for the great input.

Cheers, Bill