Thanks for the reply. Fuel, CO and other non-electrical issues aside,
what did you mean by shock issues? And how does the round pin carry
the ground to the boat, if the boat is fibreglass, sitting on water,
and the generator is connected to the boat's shore power plug with a
3-wire shore power cable? Where does that round pin ground lead to?
Thank you for any insights you can provide to this issue.

Jim

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 22:19:33 -0400, Ed wrote:

For short term use, you should be fine from a grounding point of view.
The round pin on the standard plug is the ground and that should carry
the ground to the boat. There are many other dangers here you should
consider that the grounding will not solve... including but not limited
to: Fuel issues, shock issues, CO issues, etc.

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 22:46:45 -0400, wrote:
Please help me understand. MyYamaha manual says" be sure to ground (
earth) the generator" and the picture is showing a wire connected to the
generator and the other end is a nail burried to the earth ground. How
to I do that on a boat?
I have a 26 foot Monterey with shore power.I purchased a boat shore
power adapter to regular household plug ( 3 prong) and I was thingking
of pluging that to the generator. I am confuse about grounding of the
generator to the earth ground ( the nailing to ground thing) ????

I have never understood that issue either. I have been on the edge of
buying a portable generator for several years, but never got around to
it because we rarely need it. Meanwhile I have been researching that
question on the net and in books like Nigel Calder for years too, and
never found a practical answer Surely there is a simple recipe for
non-electrrician boaters like us?

Our boat has an AC shore power 3-pronged inlet socket. We have a big
yellow 30-amp shore power cable, wihch of course we cannot use with a
portable generator like Romeoo's: such generators typically output
electricity through a normal household outdoor 3-pronged extension
cord. I have a 30-amp pigtail shorepower adapter that can be used to
adapt the household extension cord to the boat's shore power inlet
socket.

Our boat's AC wiring presumably is independent of the boat's DC
wiring. Or at least I certainly hope it is. The DC system's ground
is the battery/engine block. We have no "ground" to the ocean, nor
would I want stray current in the ocean around my boat.

Say I'm at anchor. If I put the generator on the swimdeck, run the
landlubber extention cord to the boat's AC input plug (with the
pigtail adapter), and turn on the generator, then where is ground? Is
it necessary to emulate the nail in the dirt, as if setup in a
campground when powering an RV?