[Rhodes22-list] Major Electrical Problems

[R22RumRunner at aol.com]

You may not have taken a direct hit, but lightning has caused some serious  
damage to your electrical system. Your best bet is to hire a good marine  
electrician. I would also contact your insurance company because this is not  
going to be a cheap repair. To the best of my knowledge I have never seen a 
 schematic for the R22 electrical system. Every boat is basically hand 
built and  the electrical system is the same.
About six months ago a lightning strike about half a mile away took out the 
 blower motor for our floating boat lift on my dock. Now I unplug it after 
every  use.
 
Rummy
 
 
In a message dated 7/1/2012 2:18:01 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
peterklappert at comcast.net writes:



I hope everyone is having a great time  sailing this weekend–it’s 
beautiful here in Apollo Beach. I hope you’re NOT  reading the list, or only reading 
it instead of counting sheep.   

Aeolia has MAJOR ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS and I’m afraid I’m  going to need 
some help to solve them.

Here’s the current  mess:

1.The stern light is blown.

2. The circuit breaker panel  lights up but the LED for the “Instruments” 
breaker has blown   We  replaced it with the “Running Lights” LED (since 
the blown stern light was  tripping that breaker anyhow) and “Instruments” 
now lights.  

3.  The Xantrex voltage meter is completely gone; the fuses in the wires 
from it  to the batteries are ok.

4.  The fuse to the Garmin chart plotter  is blown but the line itself has 
power. The Garmin was not onboard when all  this damage happened. I don’t 
have the required 3-amp fuse at hand but when I  get one I expect the Garmin 
to work.

5. There’s no power to the VHF–no  power at the fuse. The fuse itself is 
ok.

6. The Sony CD/Radio (which  is not powered through the breaker panel) 
receives power but will not turn on.  We found no fuse and none is mentioned in 
the owners manual.

7. The LED  lights on the ProMariner ProSport battery charger come on but 
the charger  doesn’t charge the batteries. We couldn’t determine how the 2 
cables from the  charger run to the batteries, but we sort of assume the 
fatter wires/cables  attached to the port side battery (red to +, white to -) 
are from the charger.  In that case, the outer covering of the cable from the 
charger has been  stripped, starting somewhere out of sight behind the 
companionway step. Why?  Another possibility:  the cable from the charger has 
been joined to these  somewhere out of sight behind the companionway step.
(I just realized we neglected to disconnect the batteries and  check those 
fatter wires/cables for power.) 

8. The charge on the  batteries kept going down while we worked. The port 
side battery went from  12.03 to 11.92 & the battery before the V-berth had a 
similar drop. The  only intentional drains on power were (1) the breaker 
panel (2) the fan in the  cabin. (It was very hot today.) We didn’t try to run–
and I forgot to check–the  fan in the V-berth. 

9. Around 5 PM, as we were quitting, I hooked up a  portable charger to the 
port battery. When I check about 6.5-7 hours later,  both batteries 
registered just under 13 volts.

(I’ve only got an analog  multimeter; it’s clear I need digital.)

Solving this mess is made much  more difficult by (1) not having a wiring 
diagram for Aeolia and (2) the  absence of ID tags on almost all wiring. (The 
only tags are ones that came  from various manufacturers–Xantrex, Sony, 
maybe Standard Horizon.) 

Did  anyone get a wiring diagram from General Boats when they bought their  
boats?
If so and if possible, please scan it and post it as an  attachment–or send 
directly to me at peterklappert at comcast.net.  Thanks!  

It seems certain I’ll need to hire a marine electrician; a wiring  diagram 
will save him time and me $$$. I’m already facing a lot of expense to  
replace electronics on board.

This message is a version of one I’m  sending to Stan both by eeee-mail and 
fax. (The last time I tried to call the  factory number I got a fax tone, 
and it’s still there, so I'll try a fax.)  

Additional History: 

A few weeks back we had a strong storm--heavy rain and winds gusting to 
over  50 mph. I had to power outage here at the house. Some time later I 
noticed  that the VHF aerial atop the mast--the staff part of it--was gone. It was 
in  the cockpit.

A week or two before Debby we had a power  surge that knocked out my FiOS. 
There was no other sign of a surge at my  house. & there were no power 
interruptions during Debby--or maybe one very  brief one.

I'm reporting this because there  is no sign of a lightning strike, on 
Aeolia or on land.

Aeolia has not been connected to shore power except the two times I mention 
 below. 

I didn’t take the cover off the boat immediately  when I got here, and when 
I did it was mainly to see if everything was dry in  the cabin. Couldn’t 
have been dryer. 

At that time the  Xantrex volt meter indicated the batteries were low, so I 
ran shore  power  to the outlet outside cabin. (Apparently the clear panels 
in the  boat cover did interfere with the solar panels) I think I got 
distracted and  left the shore power connected for 24 hours or more. Unless there 
was a power  surge, I don’t think that would have been detrimental: 
shorepower goes to an  onboard Prosport20 Marine Battery Charger. When I 
disconnected shorepower, the  meter said the batteries were charged.

[Maybe the worst  part of all this narrative is having to make the 
following admission: I  haven’t used Aeolia at all since I’ve been back to FL, It’s 
a long, boring  story--a series of long boring stories.]

I went out  yesterday to prepare for a sail today and found the voltage 
meter was  completely dark (unpowered). Ran shorepower to the boat but it made 
no  difference.
I then discovered that all the lights and outlets  on my dock were shorted 
out. The power to the lift motors, which doesn’t have  a GFI, was fine.
A friend & I identified the source of  the short and disconnected that 
wiring. All the other dock lights and all  outlets now have power.

Nonetheless,  when I ran  shorepower to Aeolia it made no difference. The 
voltage meter was still dark.  We spent the afternoon trying to figure out 
what was wrong. Steve’s a longtime  boat owner and a home improvement 
contractor savvy about electricity issues.  (I’m ignorant but trying to learn.)

That’s when we  discovered the various failures at the start of this long 
message.  I  apologize for its length!














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