Grounding electronics to water?

[Todd in NY]

How do you ground an electronic device to water on a utility boat that uses a tiller steer motor that is not connected to the battery? One of my devices needs to be grounded to the battery negative terminal AND to water, so how can I accomplish that requirement? Thanks in advance!

[muskiedreams]

I would think, run a ground cable to the motor from the battery negative terminal. But maybe there could be a problem with that if the motor doesn't have any sacrificial electrodes.

[TileMan Dan]

Why not just run a ground wire from negative on battery to some point on the boat transom area. Above water line of course.

[Todd in NY]

I am thinking about buying a used Sub Troll for my utility boat, but before I do, I want to make sure I can properly ground it. The instructions on the Sub Troll say to attach the black wire to the negative battery terminal AND the boat's ground system/water. That's easy enough on a boat with a charging system, but I don't think it was intended for a boat without a grounding system.

Thanks for the feedback. I thought about just letting a groud wire contact the water behind the transom, using a keeper of sorts to make sure it doesn't contact the boat. But then there are the unknowns and what ifs...

[TileMan Dan]

I run a subtroll on my boat also. Have no problems with it but I have an i/o. I would think that if there was a problem , you could run a ground to your downrigger also somehow to achieve same result. I wil give your situation some more thought.

[Todd in NY]

Thanks Dan!

 

This utility boat is my backup boat, but my primary boat is blocked by a dumpster until the end of April, possibly middle of May. So I am just trying to think outside the box and have a solid plan for using my utility boat with riggers.

Edited March 18, 2016 by Todd in NY