No joy on shore power

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by nematon785

In the spirit of this thread I would like to tell a little story.

Melvin buys a boat. Being the cautious and safety oriented type he does the right thing and hires a Certified Marine Electrical Specialist to inspect his system before connecting shore power. The expert declares the wiring to ABYC code and acceptable for use. Melvin gleefully connects shore power.

Meanwhile gasoline fumes accumulate in the cabin due to non working blower, and propane gas accumulates in the bilge due to a cut line on a rough run that was installed long ago by a Certified Marine Tech in a hurry.

Melvin is getting ready to go to dinner and celebrate his inspection results and plugs his hair dryer in. The hair dryer switch was in the on position before he plugged it in, and as a result the plug arced just as it went into the outlet.

Melvin burnt down the entire boat yard, even with an inspection and ABYC standard wiring.

Should Melvin have hired every system specialist known to man before plugging in his hair dryer? Maybe Melvin is a candidate for the Darwin award, and we are actually better off as a species now that he is gone?

This story is just for our entertainment and introspection. luckily Melvin is not real.

No helmet can protect a lack of common sense.

Or he could have hired a surveyor with ABYC Stadards Certification in the first place.

[Bigjim]

Good news for anyone following this thread. I bought and installed two new Group 31 batteries. All the electrical systems seem to be working fine.

We did an engine start and after a bit of work, got it started. It ran great.

The cabin lights are older filament fixtures. I will be swapping all of them out for LED lighting this summer.

Boat launch will be this Thursday. Wish me luck.

[wsmac]

Originally Posted by Bigjim

Yeah. That's the same thing. All my friends who live up there have them installed on their cars and trucks. In many areas you will see plugin outlets in the parking lots. When it's below zero people plug in to keep the oil thin. Engines start up like a summer day. Of course, being from Illinois, my car doesn't have one. Luckily, it started anyway. But it was tough.

In Alaska I had rubberized mats I stuck on to my oilpan and placed under my battery. Plugged these in to help my truck start on those really cold days.
I also had one block heater installed as well.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Bigjim

Good news for anyone following this thread. I bought and installed two new Group 31 batteries. All the electrical systems seem to be working fine.

We did an engine start and after a bit of work, got it started. It ran great.

The cabin lights are older filament fixtures. I will be swapping all of them out for LED lighting this summer.

Boat launch will be this Thursday. Wish me luck.

Yep, that's pretty much how it usually goes.

In my case, I bought a $79.00 Walmart Car Battery and then turn on all electronics and crank up the engine. This in 2011

Since I wasn't sailing around the world, I used this setup for a couple years then bought a second battery............

Btw, the Walmart Car Battery is still functional and one of the two batteries I have in parallel running all electronics...........the batteries are now connected to solar for charging

[Bigjim]

Update to the original thread: I launched last Thursday, April 13. Everything went perfectly. No leaks. Stuffing box was fine. Cranked up the motor. Loaded my gear and moved the boat to a local marina.

Stayed overnight loaded more gear and groceries. Left port early morning and headed for the other side of Lake Michigan. Raised sails once we were clear of the entrance channel. The crossing was uneventful. Winds were 5-10 knots all day with 1-2 foot waves. By midnight heavier clouds moved in and the wind freshened to 10-12 knots. We had spates of fog and rain.

By 3 am the winds clocked around to clocked around to close hauled and rose to 20 knots. We rolled up about half the jib and were nearly hitting hull speed. The boat handled beautifully and felt very stiff under 20 knots of wind.

Used the autopilot all the way up to the harbor entrance. It steered flawlessly for nearly the whole passage. I took over and docked a short time later. We finished after 15 hours under sail and 17 hours total from pier to pier.

We are now docked in our home port of Waukegan! Thanks for everyone's help and interest.

[thomm225]

So, are you going to have all your wiring inspected like the "experts" advised above?

[dfelsent]

Originally Posted by Bigjim

Update to the original thread: I launched last Thursday, April 13. Everything went perfectly. No leaks. Stuffing box was fine. Cranked up the motor. Loaded my gear and moved the boat to a local marina.

Stayed overnight loaded more gear and groceries. Left port early morning and headed for the other side of Lake Michigan. Raised sails once we were clear of the entrance channel. The crossing was uneventful. Winds were 5-10 knots all day with 1-2 foot waves. By midnight heavier clouds moved in and the wind freshened to 10-12 knots. We had spates of fog and rain.

By 3 am the winds clocked around to clocked around to close hauled and rose to 20 knots. We rolled up about half the jib and were nearly hitting hull speed. The boat handled beautifully and felt very stiff under 20 knots of wind.

Used the autopilot all the way up to the harbor entrance. It steered flawlessly for nearly the whole passage. I took over and docked a short time later. We finished after 15 hours under sail and 17 hours total from pier to pier.

We are now docked in our home port of Waukegan! Thanks for everyone's help and interest.

Awesome!

[Bigjim]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Electricity trouble shooting can usually be done pretty easily by starting at one end and working your way down the line until you find the fault.

Also, you are talking about a 12V DC system AND a 120V AC system. They do usually interface in a boat but switching on one doesn't turn on the other and the shore power IE 120V AC does NOT "go through" the batteries.

Perhaps it's just the way you're phrasing it but if what I'm saying sounds like Chinese then you need to do some basic study before jumping in.

Some simple and hopefully safe steps you can take to start.

Do you have a meter? If not, buy a decent volt meter. Don't get a $10-$15 cheapo, get something relatively decent.

First step, check voltage on the battery, right on the battery terminals, not on a cable or somewhere down the line. If you check right on the batteries and get zero then you probably need to replace the batteries to start.

Even if the batteries are dead as long as they aren't totally shorted out, if the boat has a battery charger you should be able to get lights and such in the boat when you plug in shore power. BUT, you have to have a battery charger and it has to be switched on. The battery charger should give you power to the lights even if the batteries are dead.

Assume the boat has an electrical panel with switches, breakers or fuses? There should be a breaker or switch and fuse to turn on the shore power and battery charger in the 120V side and one to turn on boat systems, lights, pumps, etc on the 12V side. Have you checked that out?

Great tips. Thanks. I had the boatyard electrician check it out. The problem was a bad ground connector and bad cells in the batteries. Everything is working fine now. But I have lots of work ahead to replace the old lighting with LEDs and install a deck light for changing sails or working on deck at night.

[seahag]

Sounds good Jim. Enjoy Lake Michigan- when she is ready maybe we will see you cruising in Door County, Wisconsin.

[Bigjim]

Originally Posted by seahag

Sounds good Jim. Enjoy Lake Michigan- when she is ready maybe we will see you cruising in Door County, Wisconsin.

That may just be a possibility! My job allows me to work from anywhere I have Internet. Last year I bought a Verizon Hotspot and I've used my AT&T iPhone to tap into the internet for work. So, as long as the port has some cell coverage, I am up for anything!

I want to swap out my bulb lighting with LED, but otherwise we are ready for cruising.

[Bigjim]

One more update to this thread. For all those nay-sayers and critics I wanted to note that after going through the boat carefully I have identified a lot of different features of my boat. And one thing I discovered is that the boat DOES have an AC battery charger hooked up to the DC system. So, when we are hooked up to shore power I can charge BOTH batteries by flipping a switch. In the 80s, one option that could be purchased with the boat was an integrated charger. So, even in the 80s, someone thought it was good idea to use shore power to recharge the DC system.

I am now figuring out how I can hook up my two solar panels to the system so that the batteries can stay topped off when we are sailing or at anchor without shore power or without running the engine.

[boatpoker]

So despite the critics and naysayers it only took you two months to figure out you even had a battery charger even tho' I raised that possibility in post #3 (144 posts ago) to which you never responded ?????? !!!!!!

Good luck with the solar installation

[Bigjim]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

So despite the critics and naysayers it only took you two months to figure out you even had a battery charger even tho' I raised that possibility in post #3 (144 posts ago) to which you never responded ?????? !!!!!!

Good luck with the solar installation

Believe it or not, it was not a high priority. I spent a lot of time getting the boat ready to sail across Lake Michigan. Sailing across Lake Michigan. Getting the boat into its new home. And, getting back to my normal life. (The boat was originally located over 4 hours from home.)

In the interim, I've been spending a lot of time cleaning the boat, fixing things and replacing equipment. I actually learned about the charger over a week ago, but I wasn't really thinking about this forum at the time. I just thought it was an interesting postscript.

My new concern is that the charger doesn't seem to have a regulator built in, because it seems to overcharge the batteries. I have to monitor the process and turn off the charger once the batteries are topped off.

[nematon785]

Not sure if I am a naysayer or a yaysayer on this thread, but congrats Big Jim, toast in honor of your successful voyage!