[Rhodes22-list] Major Electrical Problems

Mary Lou Troy mtroy at atlanticbb.net
Sun Jul 1 09:21:51 EDT 2012 

I know nothing about electricity but Rummy's 
analysis sounds good. I don't believe anything 
but lightning could cause the kind of damage you 
are describing. Several of our friends have had 
similar issues & most have had good experiences 
with their insurance companies with it. The 
repairs will take a while but if you document 
them, You will have your wiring diagram.

Good luck!

Mary Lou
1991 R22 Fretless
Rock Hall, MD


At 07:36 AM 7/1/2012, you wrote:
>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 weekend­it’s beautiful here 
>in Apollo Beach. II 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 VHF­no  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 chheck­the  fan in the V-berth. 9. Around 5 
>PM, as wee 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 manufacturers­Xantrex, Sony, 
>maybe Standard Horizon.) DDid  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  attachment­or 
>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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