Dear Mrs. Manners,

What do you do when your marina neighbors are endangering other users,
your guests, and the metal parts of your boat?

The nimrod on the face of our pier, absent for the past few days, has
compulsively screwed his shore power cord down to the dock with cable
clamps on about 9" spacing. That’s good, I guess. While admiring this
arrangement, I noticed that he had also put a screw in the cover of
the power stand so it couldn’t be opened. That made me wonder, when I
looked at the power cord coiled neatly in the driving rain with the
live end about six inches from the edge of the dock, whether he
unscrews it every time to throw the breaker.

Inquiring minds can’t leave well enough alone so I got a screwdriver
and removed the screw. All breakers were on. The paper labels that
tell you which breaker goes to which outlet are long gone at our
marina and I didn’t want to risk turning off someone’s boat so I just
disconnected the cord and hung it over the hook.

I can just see it. One of the (generally under the influence) sunset
watchers comes down and kicks the cord in. They reach in to retrieve
it and follow it in with the shock. Someone else rushes to their aid
and also goes in. Someone with more presence of mind goes to trip the
breaker and, where is a screwdriver when you really need it?

My ironclad rule is that the boat end of the cord is never live, even
for a moment, unless it is fixed in the socket and the breaker is
always off when the shore end is inserted or removed.

--

Roger Long