On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:23:14 +0000, Larry wrote:

So, here comes Joe Boater with his "adapter". Joe plugs his adapter into
the massive 50A jack, then plugs his #12 30A boat cord into the adapter.
You've all seen it and thought nothing of it.

Now, if this were in a building, it would be called a "violation of the
National Electrical Code" because the 50 amp branch circuit was
"adapted" to a way-too-small-for-50-amp cable leading to the fire in the
boat.

Technically correct but in practice it doesn't seem to be a problem.
Most shore power fires are at the boat end of the cable due to bad
connections.