The reverse polarity warning light turned on when I switched the main panel break on. I suggest everyone check their shore power cables and sockets regularly. Here is what I found, after being unable to find anything wrong with the panel breaker connections or the shore power box. It was a visibly fried neutral connector on the shore input socket (aft on my Catalina 36) and shore cable plug. Happy sailing!
Hi Alex,
You might try replacing the female end of the cable with a SmartPlug. I did, it is a much better connection system. Sadly the male end effectively doesn't exist for the shore power connection at the pedestals. They sell a kit with the boat's plug and the cable plug.
Good luck!
Lou Bruska
Sojourn
1985 C-36 Mk-I TR #495
Eldean Shipyard
Lake Macatawa (Holland, MI) Lake Michigan
Rallyback@comcast.net
We have two marine shore power sockets. One for the AC and the other for all the other AC circuits. We experienced same the same failure in both. In both cases, I noticed one of the wires was badly corroded (the white neutral one if memory serves me.) which increased the resistance and lead to the "burning" on the connector and in the socket. When I replaced them, I made sure we attached good clean wire to the terminal screws.
Paul & Wendy Keyser
"First Light"
Rye NH
2005 C36 MKII #2257
Wing, M35B
I replaced my antiquated style shore power connector (like yours) with a smartplug. It dropped my air conditioner current by 2amps.
2003 Catalina 36