Why do we need your services?

Regular inspection and maintenance of the electrical systems onboard a Superyacht is crucial to ensure the safety of both crew and guests.

Electrical faults in marine environments pose heightened risks, including fire hazards, equipment failure (caused by the accelerated wear and tear from heat and water exposure) and an increased danger of electric shocks from corroded earth contacts and reduced skin resistance in high moisture environments.

Regular safety testing helps identify potential issues early, preventing accidents and ensuring all electrical systems operate reliably. This is essential for compliance with marine safety regulations and to ensure smooth, safe and uninterrupted operations on board. 

The  electrical insulation “megger testing” carried out under normal class  surveys will only show part of the picture. It won’t highlight corroded earth terminals on exterior locker sockets, loose connections behind a well used crew mess socket or a socket housing that is starting to become brittle from heat and oil exposure in the galley.

Fire

One of the greatest hazards to everyone onboard. Without an ignition source there can be no fire. Outside of the Engine Room, Galley and Laundry the primary ignition source of onboard fires is electrical. In many cases with careful inspections early signs of overheating from loose or faulty wiring can be identified ahead of time. Often to see these signs inspection covers inside distribution panels need to be removed, or in the case of sockets, the socket itself removed.

Electric Shock

We have earth leakage circuit breakers - won’t they prevent an electric shock?

Whilst these devices do a fantastic job of reducing the risk they do not entirely remove it. They do take a very short time to activate and you may feel a small shock before they disconnect.

They are designed to detect a human becoming a leak between a “Live” conductor and ground, they cannot detect a leak between a “Live” and “Neutral” conductor. If an extension cable had two damaged sections, one exposing the “live” conductor and one exposing the “neutral” conductor and you happened to be coiling it whilst it was plugged in standing in your rubber wash down boots there is a very high chance of you receiving a nasty potentially fatal shock. Unfortunately in this scenario the leakage detector will not see any path to ground and would not activate.

It’s also important to test these leakage trips, either via the test button or via a device that we use that can simulate an earth leakage. With this device we can verify the trip time and the trip current of the leakage detector. These detectors can fail and should be tested on a regular basis.

What do we do to prevent this?

Fixed Electrical Outlet Testing/Surveys

It is usually a class requirement to conduct regular inspections of fixed sockets and to have records of this testing which maybe requested after an incident. This testing and inspection is by no means a small task onboard a large yacht, even one that carries an ETO. The only way to ensure there are no loose wires, over exposed conductors or signs of overheating is to dismount the socket and visually inspect and re-terminate/re-torque. This needs to be done with the utmost care for the surrounding trim on a superyacht.

Portable Appliance Testing/Surveys

Portable appliance refers to “any device that is movable and fitted with a mains plug”. Commonplace on commercial vessels sailing in British waters, building sites, hotels, public buildings and workplaces in the UK. Although not a legal requirement it is strongly recommended to reduce the risk of a safety incident.

This test is to ensure that portable devices pose no electric shock or fire hazard. It consists of a series of visual inspections and electrical tests using a calibrated instrument. A degree of common sense is needed to select the devices that pose the most risk and the testing intervals. An office printer that has not moved since it was installed two years ago is a far lower risk grade than the extension leads used by the deck crew or the metal cased galley food mixer.

Earth Bond Testing/Surveys

Vital for areas where crew or guests are likely to come into physical contact with electric motors or pumps. Jacuzzi and pool skids, electrical enclosures, anchor windlass and mooring winches.

A good connection between any exposed metal parts on electrical equipment and the vessels ground is vital for safety. Electricity will flow through all possible paths to ground not just the path of least resistance. The worse the ground connection the more current will flow through an alternate path, potentially the deck hand with wet feet.  

Many times we have seen earth bonding wires either missing completely or bolted onto painted surfaces. A simple multimeter continuity test isn’t enough to ensure the quality of the bonding. A more correct method is to pass a high current but low voltage DC source between the metal frame of the motor or device and the vessels hull.

Sub Panel and Enclosure Surveys

Many issues can hide behind inspection panels and covers of distribution panels. Plastics that have become brittle with age or heat. Loose connections leading to overheating. Poor earth bonding. Modifications and retrofits that would have not met the standard at build. We have even seen undersized feeder cables specified since build.