Sorry to necro a thread, but I am starting to do some spring
work on this old boat and I realized I should have put my solution to this issue on this thread in case it helps any one.
I found that if I removed the
wiring for the Mermaid from the circuit breaker box and put a
plug on the end...it would run with no issue off the GFI post. So...I installed a second power plug on my boat with an in-line 30amp breaker that is not connected to the breaker box in any way. I then wired this line into my Mermaid and now all is fine. I put a selector switch in the mix since I will need the original wiring if I want to run the Mermaid off the generator or, if I am temporarily on a non-GFI post, I don't have to mess with two
cables. I also tossed a couple outlets on this chain because I wanted more and the Mermaid isn't over loading it.
Kind of stinks that I have to hook up two
cables now, but the boat came with the second cable so this was a very
cheap solution. My total bill after the plug, switch, and wire was well under $100 and that was using quality
parts and
marine rated wiring (and even if I had to buy another shore cable it would have only been another $100 or so). I've heard of people sinking in a lot of
money to try to solve these GFI boat issues and still failing. So I figured I should share.
Still can't figure out what the deal is with the original wiring. I've literally disconnected everything from the breaker box except the Mermaid (incluing any LEDs) and it would still trip. It is very easy to tell that there is no neutral to ground connection happening on the breaker box...yet it acts like there is one for the Mermaid. I was going to try replacing the breaker box...but I knew without a doubt the second shore plug would
work so I went that
route.
To complete the build story, the selector switch has three positions so I took the opportunity to add a 12v to 120v
inverter and 200 watts of
solar panels. This CANNOT run the mermaid of course (I didn't even wire it in for this position), but the
kids can have a 27" TV and a
low power PC or
game system running for hours without the generator and not bug me while I am
fishing. They ran this all day a couple times and my
batteries were at about 70% when we raised
anchor. However, this is of course not related to the solution of the GFI trip issue and completely a side
project.