salt water and rarely dried out properly. They’re often given to high school students working summer jobs, who have little idea how to connect them to high voltage pedestals correctly. They’re twisted and thrown in wet moldy lockers and ignored for months at a time. Did I mention they are quite durable? Well, they are, but not indestructible. According to accident investigation data, 55% of boat fires are caused by electrical sources, and of those, nearly half can be attributed to shore power.That should be a scary enough statistic to encourage everyone to take shore power cords seriously. It’s no secret water and electricity do not mix well, yet we deal with them dangerously close to each other each time we connect our boats to shore power.The condition of our shore power cord terminal ends needs to be inspected and maintained more often than most boaters do, and they are ignored at our peril. A fire at McCotters Marina & Boatyard in
Washington,NC, that destroyed 20 boats and did $23 million in damage was attributed to a boat’s shore power connection. Preventing Problems If your boat has the ubiquitous 30- or 50-amp three-prong terminal connectors, regularly inspect the terminals for corrosion or water migration into the connector. If the end on your cord is not a factory molded unibody construction, but rather one that can be easily disassembled, disconnect the cord at both ends, remove the outer cover and inspect the wire connections to the terminals.The screws capturing the wires against the terminals can loosen, creating resistance. Resistance in electrical connections is a treacherous enemy, as it is frequently hidden and goes unnoticed until it creates enough heat to spark a live fire. If your cord ends are molded unibody construction, they still need to be inspected. Examine the ends of the shore power cords on a regular basis. Look for discoloration or
Unibody Cord End
melting around the blades of the plug (male end). Look for water intrusion and corrosion around the base of the blades where they enter the rubber. Similarly, examine the female end of the cord, around the slots on the connector. Examine the face of the inlet on the
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WINTER 2022
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