timmygobang
Member
A rather large 40 meter Sunseeker have their very thick shore power lead trailing in the water (about 100ft from my boat), should I be overly concerned? Will my anodes disappear overnight?
Shore power lead in the water
- Thread starter timmygobang
- Start date
prv
Well-known member
Do you mean the middle of the cable is drooping in the water, or it's disconnected and the end is immersed?
Pete
Pete
VicS
Well-known member
Provided the insulation is sound and there are no connectors in the water there should be no problem.
Even if there is the RCD on the supply should trip but worry if you see electrocuted swimmers in the water.
vyv_cox
Well-known member
When we berthed in Holland a loop of our mains cable blew into the water one winter. Great Crested Grebes built a nest on it.
timmygobang
Member
Sorry should have added the middle of the cable is drooping in the water (quite a lot of it). I wondered if there would be any electrical discharge. I'm sure when something similar happened to me last year a passerby said I wouldn't have any anodes left if I left it dangling in the water.
Searush
New member
Unless it has a number of pins shoved thro the insulation into the conductors there shouldn't be a problem. But if it has been lying on the pontoon for years & regularly trodden on by heavy people in big boots & trollied over with grossly overladen loads so that the insulation has been damaged then . . .
the RCD will probably trip anyway!
Anodes decay with DC current leakage, not AC. The steady one-way current flow removes material, AC does not do that.
timmygobang
Member
Thanks Searush that's settled my mind
Now I just have to sort out the dark navy warps, that have been cunningly placed across the pontoon acting as a trip wire which nearly caught me out last night :S
Leighb
Well-known member
This happens all the time in certain marinas where the shore power connection is on dry land, not on the pontoon. If you have the cable reasonably tight at HW, it will pull out or break as the tide ebbs. If you have it at an appropriate length for LW it will inevitably end up in the drink at HW. Provided the cable insulation is sound there is no problem, just make sure that connectors if any, are not going to get wet.
TheEcho
Member
If you passed enough current through the cable, you could have given them some delightful under-nest heating to help them incubate their eggs!
johnalison
Well-known member
I think it is more of a potential problem than a real one in most cases. I have only once seen specific instructions to keep cable out of the water and I think it was St Quay.
mjcoon
Well-known member
Blueboatman
Well-known member
Just avoid those heart stopping moments when you take your midnight marina swim!
Iain C
Active member
It's like helicopters. In theory it should be perfectly safe, but it just seems wrong...
Dabhand
Member
Any tropical fish keeper will tell you that mains cables are submerged in the tanks to provide power to the heaters, and there are many times where you need to put your hands in the water to attend to the fish.