My nephew, who is a marine systems tech in Maine, recently sent me a picture of ganky wire. He had pulled it from a boat that was the victim of a squirrel infestation. When the boat’s operator turned the ignition key, the positive and negative conductors short-circuited and burned up in an acrid mess.
By coincidence, at the time, I was 950 miles away with Tim Murphy, education director for the American Boat & Yacht Council, intentionally starting fires to show what can happen with faulty wires.
Boat fires are horrifying, dangerous and potentially fatal. While they can happen in the blink of an eye, many fires are preventable with the application of standards, good maintenance and responsible operation. Last month, the ABYC engaged potential marine systems students and showcased the need for overcurrent protection (that is, fuses or circuit breakers) as identified in the ABYC Standard E-11, AC and DC Electrical Systems for Boats.
To start, let’s discuss the setting. Murphy and I joined Nikki Storey, president of the Great Lakes Boat Building School and her crew at “Surge: Detroit River.” The daylong event exposed the area’s high-school and post-secondary students to the marine industry. The school partnered with Riverside Marina owner Jason McGuire and industry sponsors so that nearly 300 students, ages 14 to 24, could attend for free.
McGuire is one of only eight Black marina/yard owners in the United States. Part of his mission is to bring youth to our industry and to his yard to show them the joys of running boats, working with boats and being on the water. Surge: Detroit River was an inaugural event, with the help of local schools, to focus on urban kids with no coastline experience to the water and show them there are viable careers in our industry. It was a Herculean effort that required buy-in from local schools and marine industry sponsors — both local and national.
The Coast Guard was present, giving rides aboard a cutter. Formula Boats, a title sponsor, loaded up students for rides on the Detroit River. The ABYC joined other sponsors on land to show the students what a career in the marine industry might look like. Dometic, also a title sponsor, set up cornhole with marine toilets and stored all the sodas and bottled water for the event in its coolers. Yamaha brought professional bass angler Ish Monroe to talk about life on the water. Gougeon Brothers ran real-time epoxy repair demonstrations, while America’s Boating Club talked about boaters’ experiences. Raymarine showcased thermal camera equipment.
The ABYC brought the thrills by attaching battery cables to a wire without overcurrent protection. As we waited, we could see no visible distress or heat — until the wire would smoke and burn, almost by magic. But there’s no magic here; the effects of rampaging electrical current were entirely predictable. We used a lawnmower battery to show that even a small lead-acid battery can momentarily put out thousands of amps. These high current levels can run amok. When the circuit isn’t broken, you get fire. Standard E-11, AC and DC Electrical Systems for Boats covers the need for overcurrent protection in section 11.10.
Having the board with the wires burn wasn’t enough. At this demo, we also dragged the board over to Raymarine’s thermal camera to see what it might look like. The photos were taken at different times, but the students could see how much heat went through that wire before fire occurred. (Anyone who wanted to get close was handed Yamaha-sponsored sunglasses.)
It was wonderful to see so many members of the industry supporting Surge: Detroit River, including other title sponsors Safe Harbor Marinas, Carhartt, Soundings Trade Only and the National Marine Manufacturers Association.
This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue.
