So I was redoing some stuff in my battery compartment and I happened to touch a screw head poking through the carpet and got a bit of a shock. I thought that the electrical was a closed system on an aluminum boat (its a Crestliner Superhawk). Is this normal or do I have a problem?
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Being an electrician for 30 years, I can tell you one thing about power, closed system or not, when you get a positive and negative together, sparks will fly. Without more info than you shared, there is little more I can say about what happened to you.
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Oh I probably should have been a bit more clear. I was tightening the positive and touched a screw attached to the hull with my arm. It was not a connection between the battery ground and positive but a connection (through my arm) from positive to the hull (just a little shock). Thus obviously something is grounded to the hull. My question is is this normal/okay to have something somewhere grounded to the hull or is it a problem?
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I can't say every boat is set up that way but it is clear your boat is, so IMO it is normal. What you don't want is the opposite thing to happen, touching your hull and the negative side of your battery and getting power. Because this is an issue with some boats, they will put a ion control switch on their downrigger, to stop it, going down the cable to the ball. There is a way to check that, with an ohm meter, you can look it up online.
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