Burned shore power connector

I noticed that the AC appliances on the boat stopped working while running on dock power. Checked the dock circuit breaker (still on) and volt meter (read 110 volts instead of 250 volts). After wiggling the shore power cord at the boat end of the cable, the appliances started working again and volt meter read 250 volts, then everything quit again after a few hours. Disconnected the shore power cable from the boat and found the connectors on the cable / boat badly burned / corroded (see pics below). This could have been caused (by the recent previous owner) disconnecting the shore power cable without first shutting off the shore power. The wires inside the boat leading to the boat connector were very stiff near the ends attaching to the boat connector (see pic below), likely resulting from high current caused by the corroded connections. Replaced both the male shore power connector and female boat-side connector. To enable good current flow, cut off the stiff ends of the wires and reconnected the resulting good wires to the boat-side connector. Tips: TURN POWER OFF BEFORE DISMANTLING TOUCHING ANY OF THE WIRES!!! and take photos of the wiring before disconnecting wires in case you forget how to rewire it when putting everything back together.

Jim Geier
Cheoy Lee Trawler 55