New Marina GFI outlet dock boxes

[camsaure@aol.com]

I have a 1987 Mariner moored at a marina that is going through extensive renovations. They have been moving boats around to different slips during their ongoing work and upgrades. They will be shifting me to a final slip in a few weeks and is a newly constructed slip. I have now just heard that boats made before 2012 will have problems hooking up to power. They will trip the GFI breakers on the shore power connections. Probably due to the Neutral and Ground bonded together in the older boats. Anyone have any useful insights on this? What needs to be done? Are there any ramifications for doing any mods?

[bud37]

This is a good conversation to have, good that you brought it up.

Well first step, test your boat and see if there is a problem.....you may be ok, really wont know until it is tested.

Neutral , ground and bonding on a boat have special relationships that may get fooled with over the years. Read screwed up, really not the year of the boat in my opinion unless they are referring to newer boats having isolation transformers which changes things.

Sometimes non marine rated appliances added can create this problem as they are wired for residential use......in your house the wiring ground relationship is different. Do some research, but perhaps hire a marine certified electrician to test and assess your boat's wiring and bonding.

[camsaure@aol.com]

Thanks for the reply, the guys at the Marina were going around yesterday and testing boats through the power cord end, the end that plugs into the pedestal. the found connection between the green grounding connection and the white Neutral connection. Everything appliancewise in my boat is marine rated. as far as I can tell the only things that look messed with over the years appears to be in the 12volt DC circuits. They told me most older boats had the grounds and neutral hooked together. I was hoping there would be a simple remedy.

[km1125]

Neutral and ground should only be bonded at the boat if you have a generator or inverter on board. And if that's the case, there should be some circuitry on board (relays, typically) to severe that connection when you're plugged into shore power.

I have heard that there were some issues on some boats with the reverse polarity circuits tripping the newer, more sensitive GFCI breakers on shore pedestals. I don't recall the details, but keep that in mind as something to check if you have issues.

[bud37]

QR_BBPOST They told me most older boats had the grounds and neutral hooked together

I would not rely on that info.......needs to come from a certified electrician IMO.....also it is possible you have a short on board, perhaps a chafed cable etc., appliance casing etc. It is one thing to test the cable end but then there needs to be some discovery after that....could even be as simple as the cable, don't assume.

Good luck man chasing these things is trying at best.

[camsaure@aol.com]

Found it, Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys. It was fairly easy to find which breaker had the faulty connections. But once I found the correct circuit breaker there was several outlets to check. I checked a couple and then thought maybe I should check the battery charger before continuing as I knew that it was newer than the boat was. Sure enough it was hooked up wrong, easy fix after that. At least I didn't go through having to check all outlets first. I am back in business. To everyone it is probably a good idea to check for continuity periodically between you Neutral and Ground. Thanks again