Date:         Sat, 4 Jul 2015 21:33:42 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: sharing an incident
In-Reply-To:  <vanagon%2015070500124189@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

We pumped out and rebuilt a really expensive Robert Perry design sailboat
(in my time as a shipwright/boatbuilder)   that sunk at the dock when the
guy in the next slip accidently dropped his shore power lead into the water
and the old dock circuit breakers didn't trip...Nobody noticed until this
really elegant boat next door began to go down at the bow and ended up
hanging from it's mooring lines...What a mess...After the sacrificial zincs
went, then the bronze through hull fittings all galvanically changed  into
a substance something like a clay pot.....You could crush them in your
hand, and of course, they leaked...The guy with the Taiwan trawler who did
the damage, he had plastic through hulls, his POS didn't sink....but he did
have a big lawsuit, so did the dock owner..

On Sat, Jul 4, 2015 at 9:12 PM, David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net> wrote:

> At 12:01 AM 7/5/2015, Don Hanson wrote:
>
>> Those fuses are copper, the fuse block is some other metal.
>>
>
> Contacts could be spring brass or beryllium copper, fuse material is
> whatever the element is,  often stamped zinc I think.  Which is
> highly active electrolytically.  Yes, I didn't mention that but it's
> the major reason a Euro fuse will corrode sitting right next to an
> AGC or SFE fuse that's fine.  Unfortunately the ATO fuses are a step
> backwards in that regard, as their spade terminals are simply
> extensions of the element and can present the same problems.  They
> do, however, have a lot more contact area.
>
>    They are
>> exposed to the atmosphere also....Electrolysis, waiting to happen, Two
>> dissimilar metal with a current running through and atmosphere with some
>> moisture in the air.........You should see what happens when there's a
>> similar set-up near or in Seawater....
>>
>
> I have.  :-(
>
> Yrs,
> d
>