On May 24, 6:10 pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On 24 May 2007 12:07:46 -0700, b393capt
wrote:

Instead your next post contains an incorrect reference to ABYC, and
you will buy a new tool ???

I appreciate your concern but I'm not really a novice at all this.

Please explain my "incorrect reference to ABYC".

Wayne,

What ever word you want to use for your experience level ... if your
not aware of the dangers (you asked us what they were remember) and
best practices (corrosion avoidance/stray current prevention, use of
ground & nuetral to protect humans on board and potentially in the
water around your boat, mounting and connecting wires to preventing
fires, etc.), your not qualified to do this alone. If your want to
save some money and run and/or mark wires yourself with help from this
board, you clearly need an experienced electrician to at least check
your work when your finished, before hooking up to shore power again.

Marking all the wires yourself will save you easily over 80% of the
cost of having an electrician do everything (but you got to do it
right), but still could involve an expense of over $500-$800 to have
someone carefully check the work. If your not ready to spend that
money, put off the project and go boating instead.

Now read that first paragraph again, because that $500-$800 will get
you someone who:
- Is aware of the dangers that the ABYC standards are attempting to
prevent.
- Might not be an expert, but clearly understands the ABYC standards
and best practices that will prevent stray current (under water).
Stray current hurts your exposed metal parts under your boat, destroys
the zinc anodes on the boats around you, and represents a risk to
people in the water like the local diver who might be cleaning under
the boat next to you.
- Could inspect connections, etc. to spot fire hazards that might not
be apparent or connections that are simply prone to failure.
- In addition to checking your work, will spot hazardous conditions
caused by people before you ... and really, you cannot have any faith
in someone who didn't use color coded wiring.

Dan

p.s. check me out, I post on several boards, the electronics expert on
the beneteau 393 group, contibute to Ben Ellison's marine electronics
blog, and am on a readers advisory board for an offshore sailing
magazine. Not once, has someone posted that I am alarmist, and few
errors have been noted in my postings.