Isolating our Keel with a Galvanic Isolator #galvaniccell #ourladydefiant #sailboat #boatelectrical

We just replaced our saildrive at the beginning of summer, and found recently that it was bonded to the keel and the AC grounding wires, which possibly also makes it part of the broader AC grounding system. We decided to isolate the saildrive from the bonding/ground system, and leave just the keel as the grounding point, and in addition to that, we added a galvanic isolator in line near the keel bolt that everything is grounded to. This will mean that there is no longer a bond between the lead keel and the aluminum saildrive, or our saildrive and those boats around us (including the fully carbon one next slip over). It will be isolated with its own anode. The only other metal in the water is the keel and that is also now effectively isolated with the galvanic isolator. Our hope is that this will still be a safe method of grounding, maintain the bonding among most of the elements of the boat (rigging/push pit/bow pulpit/keel/etc.), while keeping the only two metals under water electrically independent.