Some may remember a Stump the Chumps post I made back in 2015. At that time, I had pulled the boat for the season and found that two of my three anodes were gone, and the third barely present, which was something that had never happened before. They were previously in such good shape that I had to decide whether to reuse them the next season or not. We decided that Joe deserved a prize for suggesting the idea that stray current in a marina I stayed at for several days had eaten the anodes. I am afraid I am going to have to recall the bottle of Rum that I never gave Joe.
That year seemed an anomaly and every year since then, the anodes have been in pretty good shape at the end of the season so I presumed Joe was right and the problem was gone. Aries was hauled yesterday, so I went down to winterize and cover today. To my surprise, the situation was much like 2015: the prop anode was completely gone and one of the two shaft anodes was gone. The other was nearly completely consumed with just a bit of metal hanging on. What eliminates the stray current hypothesis is that I never plugged into shore power at any time this season. I don’t really understand stray currents, but I thought that if you don’t plug into shore power, you are not going to have this problem. Is that correct and if so, any new hypotheses? Nothing electrical on the boat has changed over the last 3 years, so it is not some new wiring that I have done. Dave S/V Aries 1990 C&C 34+ New London, CT
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