Another point worth making about electrical safety is the extension cord used to tap into the shorepower outlet. If your boat does not have an interlock to immobilize the boat while under charge, it is quite possible for someone (never us; usually the dumb uncle or nephew who borrowed the boat without asking first) to leave the dock with the boat still on charge. The worst-case scenario here is that the live end of the still-plugged-
Few of our boats have the proper interlock which tells the motor controller not to energize as long as the batteries are under charge, so the simplest way to add safety here is to create the scenario that if the boat were to leave to dock whilst under charge, and the cord became taut as the boat moved along, the disconnect would happen at the dock side of the equation and not the boat side. This is usually done by simply attaching the short charger AC input cord to the extension cord by knotting them together or similarly. In this event, the cord falling into the water would not be live, a trick which is long-understood by many e-boaters and intuitive to many on this list but if one more person learns of this safety procedure it’s worth posting.
One of the features I like about the Delta-Q QuiQ chargers is that unlike almost all other chargers they provide the facility to disable the vessel during battery charge. However, this feature is only of benefit if the motor’s controller is set up to allow the input from the charger, which isn’t the case with most electric outboards. I have discussed this with Torqeedo, hopefully they will make the necessary modification to their products to take advantage of this interlock feature.
Off my safety soapbox for now, let’s enjoy some good, safe boating out there!
Monte Gisborne
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