Electric current

[Wally World]

I have my boat in the driveway finishing some work on it (2004 Marlin 300) and have the shore power plugged in recharging batteries. I was washing the boat down yesterday and when climbing down I noticed a jolt of electric current when I touched the eyerings located on the transom. These are not the factory installed eyerings these are in addition so the boat can be lifted in and out for a previous owner. There was no current through the swim ladder, because its stainless steel?

Is it a grounding problem?

 

[seasick]

Stainless still conducts electricity. The tie down rings on the transom would not be connected to anything electric like a wire or a piece of equipment so I doubt that current would flow from them to you. You on the other hand could be grounding yourself when touching the eye. A poor ground but still possible a ground, especially if the hull is wet, on the outside, inside or internal. I suspect that you were the source of the current and that was conducted to you by the hose or the stream of water. Were you holding the hose when you bumped into the tie down eye?
If so, you have a problem. How is your charger plugged into electricity? Is it on shore power or just a regular extension cord? If the latter, does you outlet have ground fault protection? Right now, do yourself a favor and unplug the power when the hull is wet until you locate the cause of the stray current.

 

[Wally World]

All Good info. Much appreciated. I have an extension cord coming from garage. I will check the ground from that outlet.

Thank you for the info

 

[SkunkBoat]

I have my boat in the driveway finishing some work on it (2004 Marlin 300) and have the shore power plugged in recharging batteries. I was washing the boat down yesterday and when climbing down I noticed a jolt of electric current when I touched the eyerings located on the transom. These are not the factory installed eyerings these are in addition so the boat can be lifted in and out for a previous owner. There was no current through the swim ladder, because its stainless steel?

Is it a grounding problem?

When you say 'Have shore power plugged in" do you mean you have a 30A shore power cable connected to the boat AC circuit? Do you have some kind of adapter from a house 3 prong to a shore power cable?

I would be very careful about that. If an adapter is wired with Hot & Neutral reversed you have a dangerous situation there.

 

[seasick]

Yup... It could be quite dangerous. If the vessel has shore power and a reverse polarity indicator, that should show the problem but I suspect the charger is just plugged into an extension cord.
If that is the case, you can buy a short (about 2 foot) extension at Home Depot that has a built in ground fault interrupter (GFI) device. It can save your life . If you get one and it trips, you know you have a wiring issue