Mooring Power for Two

[Hkalan]

Hello,

In the typhoon shelter here. The vessels have mooring barrel at the bow and stern to secure the vessels in a tidy row.

Some vessel owners have a power cable (and water) laid on the shelter floor from the shore shipyards (60 amp 230v 50Hz) to a pontoon chained to the bow mooring.

A mate of mine is at such a mooring, and in the pontoon next to him has the AC box at the pontoon. The box has two 30amp breakers. He is able to hook up to one of the 30amp with his neighbour.

The vessel that shares the pontoon power with him is under an interior refit.

When AC circuit would be tripped for some reason at the neighbors vessel, the breaker at the shore will trip, not the breaker inside the vessel or pontoon AC panel.

I inspected the pontoon AC panel. The ground and the neutral are not bonded. The ground and neutral in my mates vessel are not bonded. I was unable to get into the panel at the shore to see if the ground and neutral are bonded.

I may be mistaken, but if the ground and neutral are bonded at the shore. The breakers should trip inside the vessel or pontoon AC panel.

Your feedback is well appreciated !!

Alan

[smac999]

either breaker can trip if they are both 30a. it's 50/50. sounds like the dock one is just a little less tolerant and trips first.


sorry, if the dock is 60a and the float and boat are 30a. then the 30a of the boat or float should go before the 60a. (either one could go) if they are all 30a then anyone could go first.

that 60a breaker might be worn / week, or there is more then 2 30a plugs coming from that 60a breaker, you just don't know about.

[Hkalan]

Hello,

I was at the shore today. The shore panel has a 100amp main, than the 60amp breaker in the panel goes to the pontoon branch panel bus that has two 30amp breakers.

I was not able to open the main panel to see if the ground and neutral are bonded.

The main service panel and under water cable is only 4 months old.

The pontoon panel is over a year old by the looks of it.

I think I will bind the ground and neutral in the pontoon panel and see if it will eliminate the main 60amp shore breaker from tripping !

Alan

[smac999]

the bonding has nothing to do with it...

[transmitterdan]

Do not bond the neutral and ground anywhere except at the shore side. It is almost certain that is already done by the electrician during install. In any event, the bonding of neutral is not why the breaker is tripping. Is the breaker an ELCI (ground fault interrupting) type? If so, there may be a leak between the hot circuit and ground. Wet conditions can cause this. This will cause a trip at very nearly zero current. If that is not the problem then something on the boat is drawing too much current. Turn off the main breaker at the boat that causes the trip. If breaker still trips then there is some major fault in the wiring. If not, turn on AC loads one at a time until you find which one is causing the breaker to trip.