Shore power connector

[Dave M.]

With the San Juan trip coming up next year, people who normally don't boat where they can get shore power from a marina may want to insure that the shore power cord on their boat really has a proper shore power connector. On my last trip, I thought mine did, but it turned out it did not.

I have been looking on the internet trying to identify just what the proper connectors are. From what I see, it looks like one might find 20A, 30A, or 50A shore power outlets. Here is a circular from the USCG which describes these connectors. All of these connectors are of the twist-lock variety, none have flat blade connectors. Note that the 20A and 30A connectors are NEMA L5, for example the 30A connector is NEMA L5-30. There exists a NEMA L6-30 connector, which I think I had installed on my damaged shore power cord, which is very similar, but rated for 250 VAC use instead of 125 VAC. The L6 plug won't plug into an L5 receptacle, I found.:smt009

While it is possible to replace the end on a shore power cable, I doubt that one can ever get the waterproof seal that you get with a molded factory cable. For that reason, I ended up buying another shore power cable instead of another connector. The price difference was minimal.

Once you know that you have the proper shore power cable for your boat, then the issue may arise where you have a 30A shore power cord, and the marina has only 20A or 50A shore power. I don't know if we might encounter that on the trip, but if so, an adapter would be required to connect to shore power. The adapter should be of the same high quality as the shore power cord itself. Marinco is a common supplier of these items. I am not suggesting here it is proper to connect your 30A shore power cord to a 50A source, but I suspect you can buy a connector to do just that. I don't have one.

Corrections welcome.

 

[estebanj]

Marinco has a good booklet with all the connectors including a diagram showing what the male/female connectors look like. A good safety measure in marine elec cables is that the connectors are different for each AMP rating, so you cannot connect a 30A into a 50A socket for example.

It's very common for the marina to have loaner connectors, but I have run once or twice into a marina that either didn't have them, or had already loaned those available. Most of the time however the marina has provided the adapter, which for me has always been a 50A to 30A pigtail because they put me in a slip for larger boats that normally use 50A.

They are expensive, but you can find them at a good price on eBay.

There are adapters also for 15A service (the normal 3 prong connector you find in your house). There is the kind to connect into a 30A shore power receptable so you can plug in a regular extension cord, and there is also the kind that converts a regular household type receptacle to 30A connector so you can connect your shore power cable.

Esteban

 

[Sundancer]

Dave:

Great post. I've examined my plug, one of them anyway and it looks like I'm good for the 30 Amp service. I'm sure some marina will be old or oddball in the San Juans. Oh well. Shouldn't be much of a problem for a night or two. I wonder if it's different in the Canadian marinas, but I'm guessing they are all pretty standard.

 

[MLauman]

I never knew there was such thing as a 20amp L5 (round) connection until I pulled into the New Orleans Municiple Marina one afternoon and that was all they had available. Luckily, I was able to plug into another boat that weekend.
I now carry a 15a pigtail, 20a adapter and 50a (125v) adapter everywhere I go.