Switch positions while anchored.

Hi folks,

I'm sure that this is a stupid question, but here goes anyway. When I reach an anchorage, once the anchor is properly set and the boat is squared away I turn off the ignition breakers, windlass and navigation instruments. If something happens in the middle of the night, I know that these 3 switches need to be turned on before the boat will start.

My question is: Will leaving these circuit breakers on cause any wear of electrical parts if the items are not turned on (motors, windlass, instruments)?

I'm pretty sure that it would be fine, but I wanted to see what you folks thought about this and what you actually do when anchored.

Thanks and cheers, Bill

IMO it doesn't matter...
Follow the routine you are comfortable with and used to.
If items are powered down no need/ advantage to also turn off breakers... no power draw is no power draw.
I'm assuming you can turn everything you need on from the helm so make it as easy & simple as possible to fire up... just do it consistently so its second nature.

I usually turn off the windlass breaker. I noticed that the up-down solenoid (a pretty old one) gets warm to the touch with the breaker on, so it must be consuming a bit of power. I don't know how much. Other breakers I leave on, although some items may also draw a little in standby mode.

When I saw the title of this thread I assumed "switch" was a verb rather than a noun. Would have been a totally different string of responses.

Some may recall my $500 jump start from Boat US last year. Okay, I've already admitted the batteries were old and I got what I deserved, but after replacing all 8 GC bats, I was still puzzled that both old banks died overnight, when the "start" bank was switched off as soon as we anchored.

I now believe that the inverter was installed to draw from both banks irrespective of the position of the two rotary switches. "Inverter - OFF" is now on my shutdown list.

(Also bought one of those nifty jumper packs, just like boat US.)

Brian, good hint about Windlass breaker. Just turned mine off.

You should be able to shut down pretty much everything except the fridge, bilge pumps and remembering to turn on the anchor light.

OldDan1943 said:

You should be able to shut down pretty much everything except the fridge, bilge pumps and remembering to turn the anchor light on.

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You might want to subtly light an unoccupied an interior portion of the boat so there is an eye-level light at night to help others avoid possible collision. Especially important for me since the anchor light is 30 feet above waterline.

markpierce said:

You might want to subtly light an unoccupied an interior portion of the boat so there is an eye-level light at night to help others avoid possible collision. Especially important for me since the anchor light is 30 feet above waterline.

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Seems reasonable.
I have an upper deck cluster of while LEDs I could turn on.

I was anchored out in the Coronado Islands off San Diego after a rather bouncy passage when I awoke to the sound of my anchor windlass (only one way) reeling in the chain. The foot switch at the windlass had shorted after suffering seawater ingress through a slow deck leak. So, sure, switch off the windlass breaker for sure.

rgano said:

I was anchored out in the Coronado Islands off San Diego after a rather bouncy passage when I awoke to the sound of my anchor windlass (only one way) reeling in the chain. The foot switch at the windlass had shorted after suffering seawater ingress through a slow deck leak. So, sure, switch off the windlass breaker for sure.

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Hmm. Never considered that. I have a dedicated battery pack in the bow supplying the thruster and windlass. Disconnects and fuses are buried up there, so they're always powered up.

It's not just at anchor that this event is potentially dangerous. I'm not sure what would happen if my windlass came on with the anchor in the roller. It might not be pretty...

rgano said:

I was anchored out in the Coronado Islands off San Diego after a rather bouncy passage when I awoke to the sound of my anchor windlass (only one way) reeling in the chain. The foot switch at the windlass had shorted after suffering seawater ingress through a slow deck leak. So, sure, switch off the windlass breaker for sure.

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I had rainwater short one of my deck switches while I was at home, 450 miles away. Fortunately, I never leave the chain on the gypsy; not sure how many months the motor ran before giving up

And, yes, I had left the breaker on. Expensive lesson.

A great rainy day adventure might be to shut the boat down to your normal not in use switch positions and either feel , or use a temp gun to see if anything is warm.

If its warm its using power , and running the batts down. Time to fix it.

rgano said:

I was anchored out in the Coronado Islands off San Diego after a rather bouncy passage when I awoke to the sound of my anchor windlass (only one way) reeling in the chain. The foot switch at the windlass had shorted after suffering seawater ingress through a slow deck leak. So, sure, switch off the windlass breaker for sure.

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I was just going to make a similar post. This happened to a friend at my marina except it sent the chain and anchor out while he was tied in his slip.
Not an uncommon thing I am thinking.

I agree with the advice of "get a routine" and follow it every time. In that way, you are less likely to forget something important in the middle of the night. We did drag anchor once (of course at 3AM after already being set for 2 complete tide changes), and being a bit groggy at that time of the AM, the routine probably saved my bacon (at least in some way).
At night, I always turned off all DC breakers that were not absolutely essential. Left on breakers for the lights, anchor light, fridge and freezer, and AIS (which was also our "anchor watch"). Even turned off the engine start battery main switch, which was located just below the DC panel. Our DC panel was just outside the head, and you had to pass it to get to the pilothouse (so it was convenient). Did the same thing when leaving the boat at anchor (dinghy).

Many ways to do this, but best to always do the same way. Form a habit.

Make a physical list for "Shut down" and "Start up"

Breakers off/on

Our DC panel has 50 Blueseas breakers, with 10 always on. These are for essential circuits such as bilge pumps, detectors, alarms, freezer, etc and have breaker covers to prevent inadvertently switching them off. We have color coded each of the other breaker handles RED to indicate those to be powered on when running,and YELLOW for those powered on at anchor. A few are not color coded and use is discretionary.

The color coding make it simple to just run down the panel in a few seconds and not have to read labels. Steve D gave this out as a tip at a Trawlerfest.

Our windlass breaker is only on when needed.

Generally speaking, you only need to turn off a device at one place. A motor, for example will not run if the power is disconnected. Nothing is gained by turning off multiple switches.

Some modern electronic devices consume a very small amount of power when in the "off" position because their switches are electronic, not mechanical and they need power before they can be turned on.

Personally, I don't turn off any breakers when I anchor or sleep. I don't see any advantage and it only contributes to wear of the breakers.

And when it's time to get underway the next day, the job is simpler because everything only needs to be turned on in one place.

OldDan1943 said:

You should be able to shut down pretty much everything except the fridge, bilge pumps and remembering to turn on the anchor light.

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To make life simpler, use an anchor light bulb with a photo cell which will turn it on at dusk and off at dawn, such as https://store.marinebeam.com/dusk-to-dawn-automatic-photocell-led-anchor-light-bulb/

There are several other options, including a light activated switch you can put in the anchor light circuit. Google is your friend.

I think many times our routines are influenced by how our boats were setup when we bought them.


In my pilothouse, I have a breaker panel overhead. There is a master DC breaker then breakers for engine, bow thruster, stern thruster, trim tabs, VHF, depth sounder, nav instruments, and autopilot. Maybe something else I can't think of at the moment, after I am secured at the dock or at anchor generally all of those except the Master gets flipped off. The Master has a cover so it cannot be inadvertently turned off. Sure there are times when I might want the VHF left on or the depth sounder, but otherwise they all get turned off.


On a separate DC panel, are a whole bunch of breakers that control a variety of circuits. There are only a few that are left on most of the time. Saloon lights, electric head, shower sump (only because I have my holding tank aerator wired into the same circuit, and refrigerator . Those all have covers over them as well.


At anchor, the fresh water pump is left on as well as other cabin lights. At night the anchor light breaker is turned on and usually left on until I remember to turn it off around noon the next day. Everything else such as windlass, washdown pump, deck crane, ER lights, etc... is left off until they are needed. I'd just as soon not power things that I'm not going to need at the time.


I used to keep my inverter on as well, until I had the experience of a power outage at the dock that caused my house bank to get discharged to 50%. Now I only turn on the inverter when it is needed for AC power requirements.

You must show an anchor light from the beginning to the end of the time of the Civil Twilight except in a "designated anchorage". You can find Civil Twilight info in the Nautical Almanac. You can find designated anchorages on chart or the Coast Pilot or similar pubs.
While not presently required by USCG regs, it is under discussion to require an anchor light at all times. On a dark and stormy nights the low power of an anchor light is pretty worthless. You are just plain stupid if you don't do this anyway plus leave on spreader, deck and/or cabin lights to be seen and avoided.
As for turning off CB's to anything especially when someone is on board, WTF, if your battery is on to power an anchor light anyway, why don't you want short-circuit protection if frayed and/or wet wires and connections come in contact with each other?

My boat length is 34ft.
My anchor light is also my steaming light.
I was going to change from a steaming light to a traditional stern light but, unless required, it's not worth the trouble of pulling the overhead panels to run the wire.

I would leave them on unless there is parasitic draw on the electrical system. Depending on your type of set up, parasitic dram could be a switch, relay, or motor going bad and making a connection when it shouldn't. Also, anything that has a wireless remote will have a slight electrical draw because it has a sensor and circuitry that is waiting for input from the controller. In this case, I would switch they system off.


Oh, if the weather is to be foul, I would leave them on regardless of power draw.

John R M said:

When I saw the title of this thread I assumed "switch" was a verb rather than a noun. Would have been a totally different string of responses.

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At anchor and in its slip plugged in to dock power, I keep all breakers on all the time. The only time I use the breakers is for electrical repairs or modifications. I’ve never read anywhere that breakers are not to be left on.

John R M said:

When I saw the title of this thread I assumed "switch" was a verb rather than a noun. Would have been a totally different string of responses.

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LOL! That's what I thought, too...

ProMaritime said:

You must show an anchor light from the beginning to the end of the time of the Civil Twilight except in a "designated anchorage". You can find Civil Twilight info in the Nautical Almanac. You can find designated anchorages on chart or the Coast Pilot or similar pubs.
While not presently required by USCG regs, it is under discussion to require an anchor light at all times. On a dark and stormy nights the low power of an anchor light is pretty worthless. You are just plain stupid if you don't do this anyway plus leave on spreader, deck and/or cabin lights to be seen and avoided.
As for turning off CB's to anything especially when someone is on board, WTF, if your battery is on to power an anchor light anyway, why don't you want short-circuit protection if frayed and/or wet wires and connections come in contact with each other?

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Rather than looking up "Civil Twilight", I just turn my anchor light on when it begins to get dark. KISS.


As for short circuit protection, if the breakers are off, a short circuit has no affect.

Why leave things powered on that aren't needed. For example, at anchor I rarely used my inverter. Most inverters I know of draw power when on, even at "standby". Turn it on only when going to use it. Also, if leaving the windlass breaker on, then if someone accidentally hits a foot switch (child maybe) or a dash switch for it, problems or even injuries could result.

The DC breakers on my boat were almost 20 years old, most of them turned on and off regularly, and still going strong.
Each to their own

ProMaritime said:

You must show an anchor light from the beginning to the end of the time of the Civil Twilight except in a "designated anchorage". You can find Civil Twilight info in the Nautical Almanac. You can find designated anchorages on chart or the Coast Pilot or similar pubs.
While not presently required by USCG regs, it is under discussion to require an anchor light at all times. On a dark and stormy nights the low power of an anchor light is pretty worthless. You are just plain stupid if you don't do this anyway plus leave on spreader, deck and/or cabin lights to be seen and avoided.
As for turning off CB's to anything especially when someone is on board, WTF, if your battery is on to power an anchor light anyway, why don't you want short-circuit protection if frayed and/or wet wires and connections come in contact with each other?

Click to expand...

I believe it is sunset to sunrise...not civil twilight. It was chosen so you don't have to normally go look it up. And more accurate than it just getting dark.


Fron Inland NAVRULES



(b) The Rules concerning lights (§§83.20 through 83.31) shall be complied with from sunset to sunrise, and during such times no other lights shall be exhibited, except such lights as cannot be mistaken for the lights specified in these Rules or do not impair their visibility or distinctive character, or interfere with the keeping of a proper lookout.
(c) The lights prescribed by these Rules shall, if carried, also be exhibited from sunrise to sunset in restricted visibility and may be exhibited in all other circumstances when it is deemed necessary.



Use a decent LED anchor light and at least in my case it is by far the brightest light on my boat (and also on in limited visibility (as required by the rules). But deck lighting can be effective too and sorta recommended by the NAVRULES.


(c) A vessel at anchor may, and a vessel of 100 meters or more in length shall, also use the available working or equivalent lights to illuminate her decks.


If you turn a CB off...nothing down stream of it can short circuit or over heat...the same as the protection provided if tripped.

Switch position while anchored

Interesting reading.

We each have our approach, I'll mention a few that I think are illegal or unwise.

First, COLREGS require an anchor light (I won't got into the specs of the light here) and ONLY an anchor light from dusk to dawn (using general terms). Additional lights can cause confusion by an approaching vessel. If the SHTF extra lights put you in the wrong.

Second, since you should anchor in an appropriate spot, not in a channel, use common sense, then turning off your windlass is probably an ok move. Depending on your depth of anchor, if you had to move quickly you might be toast anyway.

Third, the idea of an inverter is to make 12V power available to a 120V item. If you don't need 120V, turn it off. Most don't need 120V overnight and if you need to save batteries then this might be a help. Our inverter was wired to disengage at the connection of shore power and to connect when shore power is removed. Great, but what if you are on a dock and lose shore power? If you have manually removed your inverter, those expensive ribeyes in the freezer are garbage.

I've had this happen enough, just recently connected to a 50A shorepower receptacle, with a 50 to 2-30A Y, we lost the house leg and the only way we knew was that an LED I had connected to our ELCI, went out. No power to the house from shore power but our inverter kicked in immediately so no garbage in the galley refrig/freezer or the freezer on the sundeck.

Back to the 120V night time needs, we have 2 phones, 2 tablets and 2 laptops that need to be charged. I don't know any other way to charge them other than 120V. Usually 1 of our phones is running Anchor Pro so the alarm is necessary. That is running & charging the same phone, via 120V chargers.

Thought I'd throw these ideas out.

We have a large house bank, 6-L16 6V AGM batts. We just installed 3-220W solar panels which seem to help (on sunny days) to keep our batts above 70% SOC.

There are ways to handle what you need when you anchor.

BTW, the refrig/freezer is probably the biggest draw. Ours is 120/12V. We always switch to 12V when we anchor. That saves conversion power.

Stay safe & healthy out there.

Just another example of why I feel (personal opinion) it is a good idea to turn off circuits not being used. What about the washdown pump. If the through hull is left open (I close that too), and you develop a leak somewhere in the system, your pump will add sea water to your boat. If the through hull is kept closed and the pump were to fail in the on position, it would run dry and potentially ruin the pump. If off, not an issue.

I leave the 12v breaker on for the fridge anytime I have goods in it. My battery bank would run the fridge for many days, especially since I have over 500 watts of solar to recharge it in the daytime (even in the dock power failure above). But if the fridge is empty, I turn it off.
Many ways to do this, and no "one right way". However, I think some do make more sense, especially since once you get used to your own "best method", it should become somewhat "second nature".