almost electrical fire on MiJoy

[Mike Wilson]

Per other posts, a generator and inverter were added to MiJoy.  Part of that installation of the inverter process was how to provide a breaker for the power going to the inverter and then the return to the outlets on the boat.  It was decided to remove the stock double breaker (positive and negative) for the outlets, and replace with a 30 amp going out to the inverter and a 15 amp going to the outlets.  The battery charge and hot water heater breakers were left as Beneteau original with breakers on both the pos and neg.  If you have not pulled the metal sheet metal cover off the back of the 120 breakers, I would advise that you do take a look, after turning off all 120 to the boat.  The breakers have slip on spade connectors.  Over time, mine had loosened up and were not making good contact.  In 2015, we had guests on board in Georgetown our first year cruising and with the generator running, I flipped something else on, probably the water heater.  Stepped away and my very alert fist mate yelled smoke.  I think my response was to stop the generator.  The insulation on one of the negative terminal spade connectors was fried.  It took a bit of innovation to come up with a way to reconnect with tightened connectors.  It limited how much 120 we used for the rest of the season.  After return to the US, I replaced the double breakers for the battery charger and water heater with screw terminals.  No issues since.  Uploaded picture of melt to my gallery.  Still learning, I thought I would be able to link pic to this post.  Terminals in pictures with screws are the new breakers, spade lugs are the stock beneteau.