Services
Boat electrical diagnosis, repair and upgrades
12 and 24 V DC and AC aboard: batteries, charging, starting, circuit protection, shore power and everything that draws current. I come to the boat — at the marina or on the trailer.
Diagnosis
Find the cause and prove it with a measurement — before anyone buys parts.
- Battery goes flat in the slip: resting draw, battery condition, whether the charger is doing its job
- Engine won’t crank, or cranks slow: voltage drop in the starting circuit
- Instruments go dark or reboot during engine start
- Intermittent faults: works one day, dead the next
- Something runs hot, smells like burnt insulation, or keeps tripping its breaker
- Bilge pump won’t come on from the float switch, or runs nonstop
Repair
Repairs built to hold up to moisture and vibration.
- Replacing corroded and overheated connections, terminals and bus bars
- Circuit protection: fuses and breakers sized to the wire’s gauge and run length
- Bilge pump circuits: power feed, float switch, protection
- Battery switches and how they’re wired
- Electrical items on your survey list, fixed and verified with a meter
AC aboard
Shore power, inverter and charger — from the shore power inlet to the outlets in the cabin.
- ELCI tripping at the pedestal: tracking down ground leaks and neutral-to-ground faults
- Shore power inlet, cord, plugs and adapters
- Inverter/charger: hookup, protection, testing
- Outlets, breakers and GFCI protection aboard
Upgrades
Add what’s new without overloading what’s already there.
- Second battery bank; separating the start battery from the house bank
- Electronics hookup: chartplotter, fishfinder, VHF, battery monitor
- New circuits with proper protection and labeling
- Untangling previous owners’ add-ons, plus a boat passport: a map of what feeds what
The standards I work to
I work to ABYC standards and USCG rules (33 CFR) — the same ones my handbook is built on. Where ISO is stricter, your boat gets the stricter of the two.
Wire, fuses and connections are sized by calculation — from the current and the circuit length — not copied from whatever was there before. Every change gets labeled and goes into the boat passport.
Pricing
You get a price once you’ve described the job, before any work starts. If the job turns out bigger than expected, I stop and we agree on the change before I continue.
Background
Electrician on superyacht builds at Delta Marine Industries in Seattle; electrical and HVAC work on homes and large commercial projects; an engineering degree in vehicle fleet operations with an automotive electrical specialization. More about me.
Dock power is the marina’s side
Pedestals and dock wiring belong to the marina, and under Washington state rules they’re work for the marina’s electrical contractor. Everything aboard is my work. If the cause is on the dock side, I’ll prove it with a measurement and tell you who to call.
Where I work
I cover Everett, Mukilteo, Edmonds. By arrangement: Shilshole (Seattle), La Conner, Anacortes, Langley. Boat somewhere else? Email me and I’ll tell you whether I can take it on.