45ft Tournament Fish Ground Fault Trips
I am trying to help a friend troubleshoot his ground fault trips on shore power. The boat has a generator and impressive power panel. Does anyone have a schematic of the 115vac and 220vac wiring associated with the generator and power panel?
Looks like a 115v line 1, 115v line 2, and 220v line3. Power panel has L1, L2, and L3.
Schematics would show what it is.
Boat is at Ford Yacht Club. My son is on site doing the investigation. I'm the "phone a friend". Any help or direction is appreciated.
John Brock
'73 410
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John,
While I don't have a schematic for the Tournament Fisherman, my 47 had the schematic for hull#26 of the 45 Flush Deck on board when I bought it. It may be similar enough to get you started. Common sources of ground faults on these boats beyond a wiring mistake are neutrals and grounds bonded in household appliances like washer/dryers and failing water heater elements. Basically the only time neutral and ground should be bonded on board the boat is when power is generated on board by an inverter or generator. With any of the shore power options selected on the switchgear, there should be no bond between neutral and ground measured aboard.
WW
PS - Don't ever wire shore power inlets in parallel as shown in the attached schematic. Chris-Craft still did this in the early '70s and it's incredibly risky. My 47 had three sets of 30A inlets, including a pair on the transom that were easy to electrocute yourself with if the boat was plugged in at another set of inlets. I added a 4 position selector switch to each Line 1 and 2 and ELCI breakers at each set of inlets. It was expensive and time consuming but it was the right way to make it safe and ABYC compliant.