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How to minimize risks with post irma shorepower

Discussion in 'Technical Discussion' started by Pascal, Sep 20, 2017.

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  1. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    the crew here at city of miami run dinner key marina is doing a great job trying to return things to normal after irma despite the damage. We had 2 to 3 feet of water with waves over the docks, 20 to 30 sunken boats, probably has many more survivors totaled by insurers and as many as 80% suffeing rub rail damage. About half the finger piers are damaged

    In a week they have replaced all the deck grating and yesterday they restored shore power to the surviving pedestals on the first pier where both my boat and the one i run are.

    Great. Or is it? All the transformers and lower end of the pedestals were underwater, all circuit breakers were underwater or splashed with salt water.

    I m waiting a day or two to connect to make sure the system holds but cant help wondering how safe it will be. My 53 uses a single 50amp shore power without isolation transformer the 84 lazzara uses 100amp with IT.

    I m thinking about using the twin 50 to 100 hubbel box for the 84 as the circuitry will disconnect in case of a fault.
  2. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    You could use the Hubbel box. I'd connect to shorepower with ALL breakers off, then start switching on dumb equipment.....water heater....air compressor.......etc.......one by one and see what the hertz stays at and volts......then start switching on other stuff with electronics.....
  3. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    My friend, It's a leap of faith. It will or will not work.
    You have to figure, the salt air these years have already corroded the docks components. It will or will not deliver current. If not, the dock folk have a repair to make.
    Just watch your amps as you would at any new or strange dock.

    Your Hat does not have an isolation transformer?

    If a 100 amp outlet is available, Yes to a Y adapter. I did this for one of my customers boats and solved so many issues.
    That 100 amp male Hubble is not cheap. It has room for two 50A cables to exit and terminate to two 230/50 females.
  4. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    One Of the transformer on the dock popped its breaker and sparks when reset so still no power for now at our end except on on leg which doesnt do me any good

    No the early hatts didnt have isolation transformers, mine is 1970
  5. CPT2012

    CPT2012 Member

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    From one marina in Coral Gables, not too far south of Dinner Key ... :

    "I regret to inform you that after 4 days of the electricians fully inspecting each dock pedestal I have been advised that we must shut off the power to docks.
    The primary reason is due to saltwater intrusion.
    The power to all docks will be turned off at 5 pm tomorrow.
    How will this affect us?
    - The docks at night will not be lighted. Bring a flashlight.
    - If your vessel is an open center console check your battery level. You may wish to purchase a solar charger to keep your battery topped off.
    - Lager vessels may wish to run their generators and AC a few hours each day.
    - Vessels on lifts, if you plan on using your boat you will need to drop your lift, as the lifts will not have power after 5 pm tomorrow.
    Forward-looking...
    - It is anticipated ALL dock power pedestals, light pedestals and associated under dock wire will be replaced.
    - How long will all this take? It is unknown at this time.
    - As soon as we have a better understanding of the restoration milestones you will be updated via email. "
  6. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Before Irma, the old Cedar Point Marina, Bellingham dock started smoking. Lambs had just purchased the dock expanding their waterfront properties.
    Alloy power cable were melting after years of the wet environment. Who the heck uses alloy cables on a dock??
    Lambs now scheduling down time to the dock replacing with correct cables.

    Not storm related but bad luck to the new dock owner.

    However, it reminds me of what I have observed in my past; The lowest bidder wins the contract. They are usually NOT in business with the same name in a few years.

    It's hard and expensive to install and maintain dockside electric even correctly. After getting dunked, rinsing and hang time (to dry) they should of came back to life.

    I am sorry to hear of extra troubles at Dinner Key & Coral Gables for the customers.
  7. CPT2012

    CPT2012 Member

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    DBM.jpg
  8. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Woah, Heck of a way to wash bird poop off of the docks.

    Somebody please fill us in on how Crandon Park Marina fared.
    Need a comparison on how floating vs fixed docks fared down there.

    The floating dock at Huckins was perfect (again). The fixed wood docks were trashed.
    Other floating docks were just floating off their piles at Ortega yacht club, inches left at Cedar Point Marina dock, Covered slips at Saddler & Lambs had boats bashing the covers.
    Ortega landings fared well. One or two of their cheap fiberglass tube outer dolphin piles failed. Another value of their cheapness when built. But all in all , the boats survived.
  9. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    As long as floating docks have really tall pilings they seem to far perfectly until the wind gets to a point where they don't (cat3 or above). The boats can be tighed tight to the dock so you don't get momentum going. However, once the windage of the boats and force overcomes the pilings holding them in place......then it's game over.....BUT, and it depends how open the area around them is, don't have to worry about the tide getting too high for the boat to get caught on the top of pilings or electrical power getting flooded.
  10. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    Properly built floating did much better than fixed, but the other big issue is most of the newer floating are also concrete which did much better than wood. Several Miami and Miami Beach marinas had little or no damage.

    Now the ones damaged most heavily are also ones that are very open to the ocean.
  11. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    Electricians have fixed the issue on our tee and its working. So far... keepimg the loads low for now.

    Fetch and exposure are critical, we can see it in the damage here in the grove. The boats and docks that were exposed to the bay suffered the most. All fixed. There was one floating dock, at shake a leg, and that failed with the concrete pilings leaning over although i suspect there werent enough pilings as it was more of a day dock for their small boats
  12. chesapeake46

    chesapeake46 Senior Member

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    We replaced many pedestals at a marina after a fire. Every lug, screw, terminal and conductor was coated with a dielectric grease. This is time consuming to say the least.

    About a year or two later came Isabelle and the same marina went undr 8 feet of salt water.

    We went to replace all of the breakers, outlets and metering devices in the same pedestals we had installed prior.

    We found that the untreated factory terminations looked like they were 10 years of hard labor old.

    The treated terminations were like new and easily unscrewed.

    Even years later the greased terminations come apart fine and the conductors look fine.

    Our flooding at that time was probably not as salty as what occurs in Fla but it was substantial none-the-less.

    This comes back to the low bid comment above. The owner wanted it done ONCE and done WELL. We were lucky to get the job.
    We made sure he was happy he chose us.

    Side note: The grease is like "never-sieze" in that it gets EVERYWHERE. Every tool, all exposed skin, on your nose, you really need to be careful not to get it on the pier or pedestal because it's hard to remove, especially from a pier.