Hello everybody,
I have just upgraded from a GRP 30ft sloop to a steel hull 40ft sloop.
Everything is in excellent state except for the electrical wiring which will
certainly consume most of my winter weekends....

My main worry before everything else is to plan for electrical grounding and
I have read the most opposite opinions.

Can somebody share his experience with me, please ?

Cheers
Joao

You have the room in a 40' boat to install isolation transformers to
completely isolate the boat from the AC power system. If I were going
to do it, that's what I would do. Without the steel hull grounded to
the AC power system in any country, you are never at the mercy of the
terrible electrolysis caused by the dock's poor wiring and your
neighbors' electrical problems.

I'm involved in the conversion of a French Amel Sharpi ketch from
Europe's 220V to the USA's 115VAC electrical system, here. The boat
has two electrical systems, now. One for the forward compartments and
its air conditioner and the other for the galley and aft compartments
air conditioner. All circuits are isolated from the boat's DC power
system and those precious zincs. I can see the DC voltage caused by
electrolysis differences between the AC power supply ground and the
boat's grounding system. All appliances are AC grounded through the
two dock cables to the AC power ground separately.

If you connect your hull to the AC power grounding system, you'll be
providing zinc protection for every other boat with its AC power
ground hooked to its engine in the whole marina.....and beyond.

If I measure the resistance between the DC ground on the engine and
Dynaplate and the shore power AC ground, I get less than 2 ohms
through the seawater, here. The hull is fiberglass.



On Thu, 4 Sep 2003 17:17:45 +0100, "Joao Penha-Lopes"
wrote:

Hello everybody,
I have just upgraded from a GRP 30ft sloop to a steel hull 40ft sloop.
Everything is in excellent state except for the electrical wiring which will
certainly consume most of my winter weekends....

My main worry before everything else is to plan for electrical grounding and
I have read the most opposite opinions.

Can somebody share his experience with me, please ?

Cheers
Joao



Larry

Extremely intelligent life must exist in the universe.
You can tell because they never tried to contact us.