CHECK THE WIRING ON YOUR DOCKS!

[curtiscapk]

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/04/36 ... ni_popular

[JohnO]

Better idea. Don't swim off an electrified public dock at all. The dock could be wired correctly but someone else's boat could be leaking current into the water.

[Bryden24shp]

I'm taking my Fluke and Ohm meter down to the lake with me this weekend. There is something going on with the electricity at the boathouse. The pontoons on the Manitou got it and now the Premier is getting electrolysis pits in them when the boat is in the water. The anodes on the outboard looks great, but the pontoons are getting attacked. Last trip down, my slip neighbor's lift broke on one side. The bolts holding the lift to the slip, were corroded away. It pinned his boat to the side of the slip and did some pretty massive damage to his boat. Crushed his windshield and cracked the gelcoat around the cockpit. After checking several other lifts, the same was found. Now all of us slip owners are pretty worried and need to find out whats going on. Hoping its been found and corrected before I get down there, but haven't heard anything yet. If not, I'm gonna try to look for the source. I'm sure the current will get stronger as I move towards it. Don't know, never had an expirience like this. I know its not life threatining, because people are swimming around there, all the time. Well, crap, you know my luck. I'll dip one of my little toe's in the water and get nailed.
Thanks for the heads up, Curt!
Bryan

[Bryden24shp]

Better idea. Don't swim off an electrified public dock at all. The dock could be wired correctly but someone else's boat could be leaking current into the water.

Exactly, John! Gonna be hard to track down!

[Bamaman]

My father ran over the wire going to our boat dock with the lawnmower. Instead of putting on his glasses, he spliced the wire "blind." When Dad dove in the water going swimming, he was being electrocuted, and couldn't speak/call for help. Somehow he climbed up the ladder.

The problem was that the white was wired to the black and the back wire was to the white. The polarity on the Ace lift welded to steel poles was screwed up--and sitting in the water.

We later built a new house and another boathouse next door. I came into the boathouse in the middle of the night and sparks flew when the pontoons hit the cables sitting in the water. He did it again.

We were wondering why so many fish were floating around our boat house.

Moral of the story: White to White, Black to Black, Green to Green.

What's so bad is that my family are a bunch of IBEW electricians, and my father ran the Electrician Apprenticeship programs at TVA.

[OldePharte]

Better idea. Don't swim off an electrified public dock at all. The dock could be wired correctly but someone else's boat could be leaking current into the water.

They were swimming off a private dock. There are dock electrical requirements and inspections, but only for newly permitted docks, not on those in place before the new regs were put into place.

[bassn386]

Bamaman, here at LOTO, they want a GFCI close to the walkway, a grounding rod, and all metal surfaces grounded. So, from the grounding rod to the metal structure on the walkway, grounding from the walkway structure to the dock structure and another grounding wire from the the dock to the swim ladder.
Also, all electrical outlets encased in metal conduit and all outlets in a weather-proof enclosure.
In another thread about the electrocutions here I mentioned that an electrician on the radio after the tragedy said that he would estimate that only about half the 30,000 plus docks at Lake of the Ozarks are wired to code.
Kind of scary.

[waterlab]

I wouldn't swim nor let anyone swim in any area that had power in the water, safety crap fails, electricity can do really amazing things. Did powerline tree trimming for a bit and it is nothing to let your guard down around. Really irritating to hear the people bitch that they don't have power restored 20 mintues after a major storm. Like to glove them up and put them in a bucket for a day. Two people I know won't get to see the kids grow up.

[skudrunner]

We went with Solar for our dock. It is safer, totally off the grid and runs two lifts, lights and most other equipment. The initial cost of running a cable was high and Solar looked like a good alternative. Now I am glad I went that route.

[bassn386]

Skudrunner, I'm pretty sure in at least one of the electrocutions, the problem wasn't on the dock they were swimming from, but an adjacent dock. You can do everything possible but if someone else is irresponsible, bad things can still happen.

[Bamaman]

After my father almost electrocuted himself and others by joining the wrong colors of wires, he pulled another electrical blunder.

He ran a regular Romex wire from the house to the dock without conduit. (He didn't use "outside" Romex.) After a few years, the Romex wire rotted and was no longer waterproof. When it rained, the water puddled behind our seawall, and would blow the fuse to our air conditioner compressor. Come to find out, he piggybacked the pump wire off the outside junction box to the a/c compressor and put a 70 amp circuit breaker in the main box.

Anyone that would have stepped in water behind our boat house might have been electrocuted.

How do you say IBEW? Don't think electricians cut corners at home sometimes.

[Mosnowman]

And another at The Lake of the Ozarks....this was a young mother.....

http://www.news-leader.com/article/2012 ... e-missouri

[GregF]

GFCIs go a long way toward stopping this if people investigate when they trip instead of just jumpering them out.
The NEC came out with a number of new rules for wiring around natural bodies of water a few cycles ago but existing installations often do not get brought up to code, particularly when work done is not permitted and inspected.