Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Re: [Electric Boats] Is Marine Certification Required?

 

This is a good question and I would like to expand on it a bit. If you are building a boat for your own personal use and you don't plan to offer it for any sort of charter, are there really ANY requirements other than the obligatory safety systems required by the Coast Guard such as life jackets, sound producing devices, and lights? And who would enforce such requirements? I just can't imagine having the CG do a random inspection and getting a ticket because my fuse was too big for the wiring or some other technical detail like that. Is a boat suppose to be in full ABYC compliance just to get liability insurance? I can understand if you are insuring the value of the boat, then they run you thru the ringer, but nobody even looked at my boat the last time I got a liability only policy.
 
I'm not avocating scrimping on safety issues and it is certainly in your own best interest to do things right but lets face it, sometimes regulatory authorities get a little anal retentive on issues that can create a lot of really unnecessary expenses to come into compliance. I personally would just as soon take responsibility for my own safety and leave the inspectors out of it.  
From: John Green <v_2jgree@operamail.com>
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 10:29 AM
Subject: [Electric Boats] Is Marine Certification Required?



Hi,
Arising from another topic, I was wondering if any group members have experience or knowledge regarding the marine certification of motors and charging systems.
My main question is, do electrical items that produce sparks need to be certified or enclosed somehow, if there is no gasoline or propane used inside the enclosed boat, and the battery box(es) are vented to the exterior?  
The motors that I am initially using are actually 12v DC generators, and are marine certified as well as fully enclosed with a steel band over the brush/commutator area.
My future plan is to add extra motors as needed, if needed, so I might need to buy only enclosed/certified motors, (if available) or enclose them in some kind of box. This then raises the additional question of whether a dedicated box is sufficient to eliminate the need for the motor or whatever having a marine certification label.
 
Any thoughts/facts?
 
Thanks,
John
 
 
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