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Jeff

wrote:
Hi,

I was just given a boat, and I haven't spent much time around them. It
needs work, so I hope to learn as I go. My question is this, when I
plug the boat into the power on the dock, should everything on the boat
work (outlets, radio, etc) or just certain items?

Is there usually a switch that also needs to be turned on when plugging
in? Does the key need to be in the ignition like on a car?

After plugging it in, nothing seemed to work. When I put new batteries
in, lights and radio worked (didn't check outlets at this time).

I know that the cord from the dock to the boat was fine.

Thanks.

Much, of course, depends on the boat. Most smaller boats (I'm
assuming you were not given a 60 foot power boat) run most of their
gear off of DC power, not AC. The DC will come from batteries, and
usually isolated by a number of switches, fuses, and breakers. For
instance, I have a large fuse (300Amp), a "big red switch," a main DC
breaker plus an individual breaker between the battery and almost all
of the devices. (A few items are wired to bypass this.) Plugging in
shore power will do nothing for a given device if any of these
switches are open. AC outlets will likely have a similar set of
switches, plus there may be a master switch that selects the supply as
shore power, battery inverter, or genset. Also, the DC devices may be
able to run off of the battery charger, but that can have its own switch.

When I leave the boat, most of the switches are left in the "off"
position. In particular, AC outlets are only turned on as they are
needed, so even though I have 6 around the boat, they are all off 99%
of the time.

What you have to do is spend a few hours looking for all of these
items, and figure out how your boat is wired. Most older boats
started with mediocre wiring, and then got random hap-hazard
"enhancements" so be prepared to learn a bit about electrical stuff.
You could start by get Nigel Calder's "Boatowner's Mechanical and
Electrical Manual"
- I'm on my third copy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007...748629?ie=UTF8