www.iFourWinns.com

The boat starts right up runs great for about 20 minutes then the bogs down feels like im running out of gas then completly shuts off. After it shuts off the boat does hard cranking it feels like the batteries are completely dead. This has happend twice already and had the be towed in. Right after we get towed in after a couple hours at the dock the batteries go back to completely normal and the boat starts right up like a fuel injected engine. Also after i got back on saturday i went to turn the key and nothing happened, i made sure it was in neutral still nothing. The safety key is also hooked up also. Then i went to flip on the bilge pump and all the switches are out of whack. when you turn on the bilge pump on the cockpit lights turn on, when you turn the blower switch the navigation lights turn on ect.... Also the outdrive wont go up and down either. Some people at the marina told me about there is electricy in the water. The guys boat next to me had the same problem with his boat shutting off and not restarting on saturday I am starting to think there is something going on with my slip.

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Have you checked your batteries yet? It sounds like a ground issue check the grounds on the engine, on the battery switch, test your isolator, but check the batteries first and the output of the alternator. If your alternator is bad your batteries would run down, then when you get back to the dock and connect to shore power you are recharging them.

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2000 268 Vista "Reely Nauti"
http://www.facebook.com/#!/rivercruiser

Sounds like a short in the 12vdc system. I have experienced this many times on machinery with 24vdc control systems. One switch or sensor shorts out and everything else on the system starts doing strange things. Makes it difficult to troubleshoot.

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2004 248 Vista "Amante"
MC 5.0MPI/B3

thanks for ideas. We are thinking the same thing, withe grounding issue.. we had the same problem last year!

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Stray electricity the water raises the possibility of corrosion. The idea is that power runs back through your boat's connection back to shore power. Boat have galvanic isolators to help minimize risks from this.

Have your anodes been degrading faster than usual? If not then it's unlikely there are any in-slip electric problems at work here. Could be, but your anodes would be getting eaten up fast enough to tell.

I'm betting you have more than one grounding issue on the boat. It's likely the ground binding posts have corrosion on them. This is a tedious job. Disconnect, measure resistance, replace if bad or clean contacts and reconnect. Repeat, through all grounding points on the boat.

When you've got corrosion in a contact the circuit can work until it starts getting a lot of current through it. The corrosion increases the resistance of the wire, making the drain heat the wire up. Eventually the wire or contacts heat up enough to break or loosen connections, leading to failure. The circuit eventually cools down and suddenly works normally again.

Trust me on this, I've owned my share of rusty old cars and electrical corrosion nonsense like this happens all the time. This is also why I strongly caution people to only use marine-grade wiring materials and seal 'em up and connect them properly where appropriate.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

I will half to check the anodes the next time I pull the boat out to put gas in it. I am noticing that my outdrive is starting to corrode.

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You really should not see corrosion on the drives. That's why boats have anodes, and why the wiring between them must be kept in good working order. That's what those green wires are going to all the through-hulls and anything else that sticks out into the water. The idea is the electrons follow easiest path. Copper and steel in the outdrives isn't as easy a path as the metal in the anodes. This way the anodes deliberately degrade faster, sacrificing themselves instead of everything else. If your anodes aren't corroding then something else is. It can become a real problem if that something else is a through-hull fitting.

I point this out because it sounds like you'll be digging through a lot of wiring connections and likely replacing some. Checking your anode grounding is just as important as the 12v electrical connections. So might as well do both at the same time, right?

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

great advice thanks so much! we believe we have found the problem with boat cutting off. As the engine was losing it's prime, the valve leaving the tank that has that stop ball inside it, seemed to be sticking and we are also switching over to an electric fuel pump!

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