84 3607 Aft Caabin - no DC ?

[JeffandErin]

I went out to my boat today to replace the stern nav light. Heated indoor storage facility. I connected up shore power to a handy outlet so I could use the lights and then began the replacement. New light wired, I tested it out. Nothing. No light when activating from either the upper or lower helm station. I thought that odd as this is a brand new light. So, I checked both my port and starboard nav lights. Nothing there either. Now I really confused.

I went to the circuit breaker panel and reset both of the Main DC CBs. Then I ensured that all of my DC CBs were on. I tested many other DC devices (salon lights, helm panel lights, engine room blower, windlass, etc). Nothing. Nothing that is DC appears to be working.

The only except are the 2 x voltmeters, one at each helm station. Both function and both report that I have 14 volts our of each battery. Batteries were new in 2022

It "acts" like there is a master DC circuit breaker that is tripped.

Any ideas?

[Merkinbrumsky]

Did you check your battery switch? I’d assume it was switched off for layup.

[Merkinbrumsky]

Looks like this

[JeffandErin]

Wow! Silly me. I never even thought about that. I did not - but I bet the marina did when they hauled it out. I will check when I go back. thanks for the reply

[km1125]

That main switch is under the bottom step in the salon (the steps that go up to the aft deck). The voltmeters and the auto bilge pump circuits are fed BEFORE this switch, so as long as that battery is good (usually the #1 battery) then the voltmeters and auto bilge circuits will have power. This is also a reason to DISCONNECT the batteries while in storage, because some auto bilge pumps will still draw some minor current and eventually will kill that battery.

It's good to plug in to shore power while you go out and check on or work on the boat in storage, so that the charger will "top off" the batteries while you're working. You don't really NEED to plug in though to have 12VDC power.