The old expression… “I have some good news and some bad news, which do you want first?”. Well the good news is the boat did not catch fire, the bad news we need to get an new electrical port for the boat and a new power cord.

My son George who works at one of the national brand boat stores had mentioned several times how many people have come in to get replacements Marinco power ports and power cords because they have got moisture in them and shorted out almost setting the boat on fire.

We were working on the boat as I do almost every free night this time of year, and noticed a smell of burnt plastic near the electric panel. on the 4788 the electric panel tilts forward, so I tilted it forward slightly and grabbed my laser thermometer to see where the heat was. We discovered that the back side of the power inlet connection was about 155 degrees F, or simply too damn hot for electricity.

After unplugging the cord, here is what the boat side connection looks like:

The end of the cord looks like this:

It looks like moisture was able to get in through the not so good seal and short out between 2 of the 3 connectors.

After doing some investigation and listening to my son we will be picking up this setup tomorrow with a new cord and a new stainless steel inlet for the boat.

The big selling point for me on the Smartplug connector is the advertised weatherproof seal TPE Dyna-flex cord seal ensures weatherproof seal to power cord. Meaning the inside of the outlet should be dry.

More details to follow as we do the repairs over the next couple of days.

Update a year later:

Totally loving the smart plug, no problems with it.

Here is what happened last week to a similar boat in the same marina area as mine. It burned, sank, was salvaged and now hauled away for scrap. I don’t know the cause, but that could have been my boat if I had not caught the power cord issue when I did.