Powering Up on the Hard

[IOLANI]

I put my boat up on the hard last week at a local marina. This year they have me blocked up a great distance from the nearest shore power.
I still have to winterize the Detroit's and the engine rooms are difficult to to work in with just portable lighting so here are my questions...

I have never used the 110V hook-ups to power the boat dockside, only the 220V through the isolation transformers. Can I use a cord that goes from the 110v hookup to a 2000 watt Honda generator just to power up the 110V engine room lights?

Yes I could use the 32V engine room lights but they are no where near as bright and then I'm drawing down the 32V house bank and would need to charge them back before storage mode which brings me to my next question...

Will the Sentry battery charger work off the 110v feed or is that charger 220V ? I'm not at the boat now and can't recall if that charger is a double breaker.

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[rwaldrop13]

At the risk of being branded "unhelpful"... What about drop lights from the generator? I totally get the desire to have bright lighting in the engine rooms especially for anything more complicated than looking in the doors. As part of my hurricane prep here in SW Florida this year, I added a pair of hi-intensity drop lights from Harbor Freight to the kit, one for lighting up the area around the generator, one for the kitchen. I'm really leery of anything that bypasses the regular shore-tie connection. In fact, my generator actually has a 220/230v output as well as the 110/120v. While looking at Hats before making our purchase in 2020, we saw one that had a similar generator on the aft deck with a shore-tie cord running to the boat-side plug because the owner was trying to sort out a generator issue.

 

[Scarlett]

Sailboat run a cord from a portable generator into thief 30 amp shore power connection and it works fine. Just be careful not to try and draw more power than the gen can put out

 

[Boatsb]

We have tons of long term storage here during hurricane season and the contracts require.power near the boats. They break out cords on boxes to serve 4 boats off the one cord and everyone runs a charger or too with maybe a dehumidifier.

I would not accept the situation where power was not available.

 

[IOLANI]

We have tons of long term storage here during hurricane season and the contracts require.power near the boats. They break out cords on boxes to serve 4 boats off the one cord and everyone runs a charger or too with maybe a dehumidifier.

I would not accept the situation where power was not available.

Yeah that's not gonna happen here. In fact I think the contract forbids powering up while blocked up. I imagine it's to avoid people running space heaters all winter on the yard's dime or crazies trying to live aboard while on the hard and the hazards associated with each.

I found a picture I had of my AC panel and the Sentry charger looks to be 220V so that ends that idea. I still may try the generator to provide temporary 110v lighting.

 

[Pascal]

I would never haul out at a place which doesn’t have at least 120/30 for lights and charger.

You could use a portable battery charger plugged in a 120v outlet every few weeks to keep the batteries charged

 

[IOLANI]

You could use a portable battery charger plugged in a 120v outlet every few weeks to keep the batteries charged

Yeah I'm looking into that. Wow, 32 Volt portable battery chargers are pricey.


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[SKYCHENEY]

You can power the 220v charger with a regular extension cord. I've done it. The isolation transformer will supply 220 volts from a 120v input. Just use adapters to plug into your 125v 50a inlet and position your switches on board for that inlet.


This is not a problem at all. These boats are set up to run this way.

 

[IOLANI]

You can power the 220v charger with a regular extension cord. I've done it. The isolation transformer will supply 220 volts from a 120v input. Just use adapters to plug into your 125v 50a inlet and position your switches on board for that inlet.

This is not a problem at all. These boats are set up to run this way.

Thanks. I can't wrap my head around how that other hot leg gets generated but that was what I was hoping for.

How many amps do you think that Sentry charger draws ?


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[whoover]

You could get a portable generator the makes 230v. Then just attach your shore cord. An adapter from the generator to the shore cord would be needed.

Walt Hoover

 

[bostonhatteras]

Yeah that's not gonna happen here. In fact I think the contract forbids powering up while blocked up. I imagine it's to avoid people running space heaters all winter on the yard's dime or crazies trying to live aboard while on the hard and the hazards associated with each.

I found a picture I had of my AC panel and the Sentry charger looks to be 220V so that ends that idea. I still may try the generator to provide temporary 110v lighting.

Probably worded as not powered while unattended.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Thanks. I can't wrap my head around how that other hot leg gets generated but that was what I was hoping for.

How many amps do you think that Sentry charger draws ?


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If its a 20 amp charger at 32v, that's about 5 amps at 120v. So a 15amp extension cord should run a 240v charger that outputs up to around 60amps at 32v.

 

[IOLANI]

If its a 20 amp charger at 32v, that's about 5 amps at 120v. So a 15amp extension cord should run a 240v charger that outputs up to around 60amps at 32v.

No chance of damaging the charger by running it on half voltage ?

 

[SKYCHENEY]

No chance of damaging the charger by running it on half voltage ?

The charger will be getting the full 240v from the isolation transformer.

 

[IOLANI]

The charger will be getting the full 240v from the isolation transformer.

Sounds good to me . Thanks Sky

 

[yachtsmanbill]

Just plugged in my 110Volt boat on a cord thats 100 feet long It runs the electric heater 1400 watts and a sentry smart charger for 4 12 volt battery's and after the heater warms up the amp draw drops to about 12. That 12 pack of Miller Light goes a long way with the owners at my place.

 

[IOLANI]

You can power the 220v charger with a regular extension cord. I've done it. The isolation transformer will supply 220 volts from a 120v input. Just use adapters to plug into your 125v 50a inlet and position your switches on board for that inlet.


This is not a problem at all. These boats are set up to run this way.

Thanks again for this post. I picked up the proper power cord adapter from West Marine and it worked perfectly off my Honda 2000 generator.

 

[rsmith]

What ever you do ground the shafts and running gear. I use a long set of car jumper cables to either a cold water pipe or electrical box. If nothing is close by I drive a piece of rebar or pipe in the ground. When I was 16 my best friend and I were working at Wildwood yacht basin. He reached down to pick up a tool and grabbed the boats rudder. He was dead before he hit the ground. You just never know what’s internally shorted or bleeding power to ground in the boat.

 

[IOLANI]

What ever you do ground the shafts and running gear. I use a long set of car jumper cables to either a cold water pipe or electrical box. If nothing is close by I drive a piece of rebar or pipe in the ground. When I was 16 my best friend and I were working at Wildwood yacht basin. He reached down to pick up a tool and grabbed the boats rudder. He was dead before he hit the ground. You just never know what’s internally shorted or bleeding power to ground in the boat.

Wow. Never really considered that. You're saying it's because the generator power does not provide a ground like dock power would ?

I just needed to run the charger for a few minutes to make sure the banks were fully charged before disconnecting so I think I'm done powering it up until spring but it's certainly something I'll keep in mind. .