See full version: Why are these superyachts catching fire
Match the fuse and wire to the load. Put the fuse at the beginning of the circuit, closest to the battery so that a fault anywhere in the circuit will blow the fuse (or trip the breaker). I actually prefer breakers on a boat but marine quality breakers are expensive.
6 – Make a circuit diagram so you can maintain your boat’s wiring system. here
The wiring regulations for boats are simply too vague. If you are wiring a house, the electrician knows exactly what size wire to use and what size breakers. Boat wiring is more complicated than wiring a house but the regulations are less precise. Designing the wiring for a boat is left up to an electrician who is usually unqualified to do electrical design. Electrical fires start because some fool has either failed to fuse the circuit at all or has chosen a fuse that has too high a rating to protect the wire being used. A properly protected circuit is not able to start a fire.
For discrimination, ensure that for each step down in wire size, you use a fuse with ½ or less rating than the fuse upstream from it. Follow this rule and only one fuse can blow when a fault occurs. [links]
If, I were to add an anchor winch that draws 125A, I would have to run AWG-4 wire all the way back to the battery and have a separate 125A fuse or circuit breaker to protect the wire. If I had a large engine rather than my tiny 8hp, I might have to use a 400A fuse and AWG-00 wire for its starter circuit. If you have a big diesel engine, you will be amazed how much better it will start if you use decent sized cables in the starter circuit. Big fuses are not all that expensive. You can purchase a 500A fuse for less than $10.(****).
Here is part of the wiring diagram for Borderline. See where I have used size AWG-4 wire for the engine starting circuit. I used a 100A fuse but the table above says I could have gone as high as 125A while still protecting the wire. For the AWG8 wire to the rest of the boat, I have used a 50A fuse. I can’t use anything larger as the table shows.
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So there you go. What to do when your super expensive superyacht blows up:
This boat fire problem is apparently fairly common, with smaller and older boats more prone to fires. If you don’t act quick and pull the floating campfire out of the marina, the other boats downwind will also burn. here
Well, according to an article from Bloomberg titled “ Why Are All These Superyachts Catching Fire? ”, the standard practice is to tow your blazing boat out of the marina and let it die a slow and painful death—and make sure you have insurance.
This alarming string of yacht fires isn’t the act of a Robin Hood arsonist or any foul play. The main cause of boat fires, as with anything else like houses or cars, is an electrical fire. From Bloomberg: [links]
It’s the older and smaller boats that are typically more at risk, says Joe F. Foggia, a yacht sales broker at Northrop & Johnson in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “As wires get older and they chafe on the metal structure, any of that kind of stuff can create a fire.” Much as in land-bound houses, electrical fires are most commonly to blame on yachts, from faulty connections to docks, wiring damage from salt water, and amateur captains trying to make repairs while out at sea. Issues in the fuel system and galley fires are also concerns.
Here’s an example from Yacht Marine Brokerage YouTube channel featured in the article: [links]
Positive Energy, the 77ft yacht, reportedly worth $2.5million, was moored at the Yacht Haven Grande marina in the Charlotte Amalie harbor on the island of St Thomas when the fire broke out
No one was reported hurt in the shocking incident, with investigators left questioning how the yachts had caught ablaze.
In both incidents investigators were left struggling to explain what caused the fires in the first place. here
Published: 15:52 BST, 12 April 2016 | Updated: 10:45 BST, 13 April 2016
Fidelity was a latecomer to ETFs, ignoring them for years as rivals including BlackRock Inc., State Street Corp. and Vanguard Group amassed billions of dollars in the funds, which are mostly passive products that track broader markets. Packaging its stock and bond-picking methods into a customized index would permit Fidelity to tap growing demand for what are known as smart-beta ETFs.
The Boston-based fund manager filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to offer what are known as self-indexing ETFs. These funds follow a proprietary index developed by the manager instead of tracking an outside benchmark, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Fidelity’s initial self-indexing ETF would reflect the performance of U.S. large and mid-cap stocks “that have attractive valuations,” as determined by the firm’s proprietary methodology, according to the SEC application. Charlie Keller, a Fidelity spokesman, said the firm made the latest application to obtain additional flexibility in the ETF market. here
Fidelity Investments is seeking permission to offer exchange traded funds that track customized indexes, providing the firm with an entree into the fastest growing sector of the ETF market.