That was the Royal Navy's choice when they specified Fintry thirty
years ago and we will continue this with her new electrical system.
The only electrical connections to the hull will be green safety
ground and radio ground for the SSB (which is isolated from electrical
ground).

We will have ground fault alarms on both the DC and the AC systems so
that if either gets shorted to the hull we'll know about it early.
Shore power will come aboard through isolation transformers.

Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com



(Lee Huddleston) wrote in message . ..
On Thu, 4 Sep 2003 17:18:03 +0100, "Joao Penha-Lopes"
wrote:

Hello everybody,
I have just upgraded from a GRP 30ft sloop to a steel hull 40ft sloop.
Everything is in excellent state except for the electrical wiring which will
certainly consume most of my winter weekends....

My main worry before everything else is to plan for electrical grounding and
I have read the most opposite opinions.

Can somebody share his experience with me, please ?

Cheers
Joao

Joao,

I have a 43 foot steel hull and deck sailboat. I make sure that all
electrical wiring and connections are kept away from the hull and
deck. I do not ground to the hull and highly recommend that you not
ground there either. I even try to keep the engine as disconnected
electrically from the hull as possible. For example, the alternator
and the starter have their own negative cables back to the battery
bank rather than using the engine block as the negative.

I recommend the Nigel Calder book, Boatowner's Mechanical And
Electrical Handbook (or Manual).

I feel that connecting anything electrical to your steel hull is
asking for serious trouble. One mistake and you could completely
destroy your hull.

Lee Huddleston
s/v Truelove