Converting from shaft drive to sail drive - Questions

[Steve DAntonio]

With aluminum being the third least noble metal on the galvanic series, anode replacement for Sail Drives, and any other aluminum drive like stern drives, is critically important. That's true. However, anodes will do little good in the event of a stray current scenario. While there are exceptions, stray current corrosion nearly always originates on the vessel where the damage occurs, so it is somewhat self-inflicted, you can't blame a slip neighbor, never the less it's very destructive and very rapid.

This article discusses aluminum galvanic corrosion specifically, https://stevedmarineconsulting.com/u...num-corrosion/

This article covers both galvanic and stray current corrosion for all metals https://stevedmarineconsulting.com/u...osion-mystery/

It includes a photo of a stray current damaged Sail Drive.

Every vessel with shore power should include an ABYC compliant galvanic isolator, this is especially so for those with sail drives. However, a galvanic isolator only prevents galvanic corrosion induced by other nearby vessels, it will do nothing to prevent stray current corrosion. This article covers galvanic isolators and anode selection https://stevedmarineconsulting.com/g...ode-selection/