Wilbur Hubbard wrote:


You people and your dumb metal boats, the problems you cause. To make a
battery one needs two dissimilar metals and salt water. You have that in
abundance in a marina what with aluminum hulls, steel hulls, various
zincs, bronze fittings, stainless steel fittings, copper paint, etc.
Steel boats are a menace because steel acts as a cathode so you have to
have all these sacrificial anodes (zincs) attached to protect it from
slowly being eaten away and plated on more noble metals.

Would you allow somebody to pull into the slip next to you and commence
to start sandblasting your hull? I doubt it, but that's about what is
happening to your boat's bottom and sundry metal fittings when a steel
boat parks its ugly ass next to your superior and inert fiberglass boat.
Marinas should be required by law to install active cathodic protection
and all metal boats should pay enough more for their slips to pay for
the costs associated with the protection.

Wilbur Hubbard

Hi Wilbur,

The steel boats that can cause problems
are the larger ones using impressed
current cathode protection. These guys
create a very strong electric field in
the vicinity of their vessel that can be
very difficult to protect from.

But the ordinary steel hulls (the
smaller guys you see in marinas)
shouldn't cause any more problems than
fiberglass or wooden boats using iron
keels with welded anodes. Which is
really no problems at all.

The biggest danger from other boats in a
marina is when they are un- or
under-protected and use shore power. But
even that can be easily dealt with.

Of all the things to complain about,
Wilbur. ;-)

Chuck

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Joe wrote:


Again, here in this marina the average voltage in the water is .5
volts DC.
If your marina is of any age the discarded metal in the water can
create stray voltage.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Nick is measuring a voltage between his
hull and his negative wiring, with the
battery and AC power disconnected! It is
hard to attribute that to the water.
That's like measuring a voltage between
the water and the air.

Chuck

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On May 20, 1:39 pm, Chuck wrote:
Joe wrote:

Again, here in this marina the average voltage in the water is .5
volts DC.
If your marina is of any age the discarded metal in the water can
create stray voltage.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Nick is measuring a voltage between his
hull and his negative wiring, with the
battery and AC power disconnected! It is
hard to attribute that to the water.
That's like measuring a voltage between
the water and the air.

Chuck

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That is weird, has to have a short to ground somewhere then.

Where do you think it is coming from?

His engine is grounded to the hull, he can claim it is not all he
wants to. Even if he has a flex joint in his shaft he has a steel
exhaust, which carries water through the flex joints and retains
enough moisture to cause a flow of electrons.

And IMO his engine should be grounded to the hull.

My guess is it's in the water, and at .6 V DC it not an issue, it's
normal.

Nick should measure a few slips in is marina. I had a big crewboat
here that had a rat's nest of wires so the owner of the crewboat & I
mapped the voltage in the whole marina. I wanted to make sure he was
not going to cause problems as he restored the boat.

On average it was .5 volts DC. We mapped the area and watched it over
time to see if anything changed, we cut the power to this side of the
marina completely and still had the voltage.

Joe