Every now and then either I or one of my buddies comes up with a real work of electrical art that we need to share in our hopes that readers here will get the idea that we're watching you and if you mess up, sooner or later one of us is going to expose you. This week's little nugget comes from my friend Dexter who was working on a customer's boat here at the boatyard and discovered a real gem of a double pole circuit breaker installation. This goes well beyond the Tupper Wear plastic box installs we sometimes see. Check this out people:
The interesting part about this first class horror show is that the poor person who now owns this boat just bought it. I wonder if they bothered to get a survey before they jumped into this beauty? If they did, I really want to meet the surveyor so we can have a few words..............
So, for those who are having difficulty understanding what they are looking at, let me provides some details
here. ABYC requires a double pole circuit breaker to be installed on the shore power inlet to a boat so equipped (with shore power that is.) So the mouseketeer that did this got that part sort of right. But they didn't get the part right where we require terminations to be made inside enclosures that require hand tools to get at any live terminals. The piece of twine securing the breaker to what I'm told is the diesel fuel tank vent line is really quite stunning. It looks quite snug and tied with good knots...............
Folks, when I see things like this it just further supports a theory that I've begun to embrace more and more as I get older. The term "common sense" is an oxymoron. People, when it comes to shore power voltage potentials, do it or get it done professionally. This stuff is lethal and is no place to cut corners.