Grand Banks shore power incoming fuses

This is a repair Tim did on his 36 Grand Banks Europa. All GBs should be the same.

To make this replacement exciting, Tim did it in the rain with the shore power energized. Send condolences to Trish at…..

The incoming shore power for Grand Banks are protected by these fuses and fuse holder. The same units are used by Hatteras and possibly Bertram.

There are one of these for each leg of the incoming circuit.

The fuse holders have a simple circuit with a light indicating either fuse blown or good. Not sure which, since I have never seen one working. You don’t need the light working, and can buy the holder without it if you chose. If you blow a fuse, and aren’t comfortable fixing it, try powering the boat from the other shore power connections to power the boat till fixed.

The fuse is a dual element common type. It protects the cable and vessel from a short circuit, deteriorating cable, or bad connection. Usually a 250V 50A fuse is required but can also be 30A.

The fuse holder threads are very fine, and subject to corrosion resulting in it welding itself to itself. Grease these up with a dilectric grease or axle grease as a last resort.

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Corrosion occurs from the clear cover cap cracking, allowing water into the shore power protection scheme, not good! I always flench when my shore power connection gets wet.

I want to refinish the teak trim on mine, and these pictures show how the panel comes out for shore power and the shower valves. I will do my shower handles soon.

Installing Vitrifrigo Refrigerators and Freezers in a Grand Banks

This is an installation done by Mike and his family on their 42 Grand Banks Classic Wishes.

These new stainless drawer units are good looking, self contained, and frost free. They can be all freezer, refrigerator, or both. You can order them 120vac, 12vdc, or both.

Despite bad advise from John at Oxford Yacht Agency, who recommending fixing the 30 year old Grunert, Mike found two units in stock, and after some research figured he could slide the old entire package out. Sure enough, you can remove the round trim on the front, then the bungs and screws, and the entire unit is ready to slide out. No reason to fix thirty year old technology.

Mike had retrofitted one of his coolers before with a water cooled Vitrifrigo unit that had slowly lost cooling ability. His wife was demanding an upgrade.

To help these units cool Mike drilled some holes into adjacent cabinets and added some new teak vents. This entire project is a weekend job, don’t believe Oxford.

You will need some help getting these on the boat. On Classics they go through a salon window. For Europas they can fit through the door.

You must remove the stainless drain pipe to slide the unit out. Mike’s was hand tight.

In these pictures everything is working fine. Mike came back later to trim out the installation and varnish where required.

John’s Demopalis to Nashville trip.

Once repairs were done to John’s 42 we we’re off the next morning to Nashville. This is a long ass upstream trip, through dangerous shark infested waters surrounded by beautiful Amazon women…naught.

This is a boring trip that has so many turns auto pilot is useless. John had provisioned the boat with two jars of peanut butter, a loaf of bread, some apples, a sack of ice, and four Capri juice packs. He had also graciously granted me one side of the V-berth, the other side holding electrical spare parts, I am to the right of the laundry basket.

This trip we would navigate 25 locks, ten in one day. John would become very proficient at docking the starboard side to the dock wall. Departures took some work. But the boat never touched the wall, much to the incredible ability and super human strength of the crew. John’s wife Scotty is gonna love boating!

After you leave Demopalis the first thing you see are the white chalk cliffs. They mine this mineral near Demopalis, very striking.

The current is very slow, under a knot at this time of year. We encountered many river pushboats. These rigs are lower and the barges much smaller than intercoastal and Mississippi River rigs.

In an attempt to make some good time, we cruised at 1750 rpm making 10 knots. With new mounts and cutlass bearings the boat was virtually vibrationless, a dramatic difference. Choices does 7 knots at that rpm, with 25% less hp. We could have saved fuel by slowing down, but we were on a mission, and had one loaf of bread.

The locks on the Tenn-Tom have no place for private vessels to tie up waiting for the locks. Also, the locks on this stretch are very slow, usually 45 minutes or more to complete a cycle.

The marinas were all nice country marinas. Small operations that make their money from the Loopers and local recreational vessels.

This 75ft, $ 3M boat has not been touched in five years. Birds have built nests in every cranny on it. Bird shit and mold everywhere. Checking it out online shows it must be in questionable limbo.

There were two major highlights to this trip, the 83 foot lock lift, and locking with 24 other boats and 125+ drunk Alabama folks. The ladies were curtious enough to flash us since we had been on the water five days.

A lot of the lakes are beautiful and deep. Thousands of coves to anchor and swim in.

One of the most interesting trips we have done.