(Editors note: Please see the current, related thrread in the Big boats Forum.)

Here are the pictures of God Speed, the Passage 42 I sent you that burned a while back. The owner has settled with the insurance company as a total loss, and a salvage company in Florida has bought the boat. As I understand it, the investigator would not agree in total that the fire was started by and at the point the shore power plugs into the boat under the steps.

My personal feelings are that is where it started. It was hot during that period, (Mid 90s +) and the AC units had been running for days. Here is the way I see the numbers. With both units running and the compressors on (I dont they went off in that heat) that circuit is pulling approx. 25 or so amps. There is 50 of 10/3 rated @ 30 amps feeding the boat. If you dont have a good clean connection at either point (shore or boat) you are going to have an increase in resistance which will result in an increase in heat, which will result in an increase in resistance which will. Well you get the point.

After seeing what happen to that Passage 42, I ran back to my Passage 42, and felt the cable and plug at the point it enters the boat. It was a bit warm. Hum! I wonder if I was on to something? I removed the plug, turned off the power (of course) and cleaned the connection as best I could, and that seemed to help. Not being satisfied, I pulled the receptacle and looked at the 10/3 in the back going into the boat and they look good. I have since replaced the 50 10/3 power cable with a new one, but I did give some though of running a special made 50 amp 8/3 to the AC units only to give it a cleaner feed.

I feel the any boat owner pulling high current should check and give some thought to the power
requirements and how well the boat is being fed those requirements.

Chuck Vincent
Eagles Nest II
Passage 42
Lafayette, La.