Danny Jones, proprietor of Electric Technique (Rugby) Ltd, and also vice chairman of the British Marine Electronics Association (BMEA) has been involved in this market for many years and told us that although there are no new, major legislative changes coming from Brussels the ISO standards are regularly amended.

The BMEA code of practice is its interpretation of the ISO standards and to keep up with new technology these are revised periodically. The current focus of interest is in the Boat Safety Inspections, with the association looking to raise the awareness and standard of inspections of boat electrical systems. As Jones pointed out, "even some of the inspectors agree that standards need to be raised".

From a commercial point of view Jones is "astonished at the strength of the market".

With equipment levels normally associated with 60 ft boats just a few ears ago, now being included in 40 ft boats now, the demand for safe and reliable power systems has increased significantly.

As new technology continues to develop more and more power hungry products are now being introduced but he feels the manufacturers are maturing. He's seen a "thinning out of smaller manufacturers over the years with the major names putting increased effort into development". As a result the prices have come down.

He feels that it wasn't so long ago "the US put us to shame" with the ranges of fuses and buss bars being offered but feels it was only natural with a potential market that big. It was only a short time ago that the market attracted a few entrepreneurs, as he put it, who looked to meet the demands in a few areas where gaps had appeared.

However the components pressed into use were not always the best for marine applications.

Today, with the volumes increasing and development work being undertaken by all the major manufacturers the costs are coming down and the use of non-dedicated marine equipment is greatly reduced.

Very costly

To illustrate he points to the proliferation of sine wave inverters which, until recently, had been very costly. But with high quality 200 - 300w units now coming in at £100 - £120, he says they are now at the level where people can go for the better quality rather than go for the cheaper units.

So what is the market like at the moment and what's new to meet this increasing demand for power afloat?

Victron Energy, the Dutch maker of inverters, chargers and other associated products has, in its own words, made "some major developments in our product range that represent some real advances in technology and that have heavyweight implications for the changing approach to electrical power".

At the beginning of the 90's Victron Energy's owner, Reinout Vader, invested several million euros in product development.

Two years later, the result was 80 new products and the introduction of "adaptive charging" and "power assist" technology.

The company's new Phoenix Multi Plus range employs all these new technologies in one package with the result that it is possible to run air conditioning from low capacity shore power and small generators as well as fit electric cooking and do away with gas on even the smallest vessels. In addition, all this can be done in ever more restricted spaces.

The result of all this work is that having launched the products about six months ago Victron has seen the growth in sales with business up some 50% on last year.

One of the most fundamental parts of any electrical system is the wiring loom itself, an area that is all too often overlooked - a fact noticed by Ancor Marine of the US.

The company founded Marine Grade Products in 1979, because it felt the wire and components designed for onshore use were not adequate for marine use and could be dangerous. The company was the first major supplier of UL-listed wire and electrical products designed for the marine environment.

Common problem

Ancor's marketing director, Anne Mitchel, said they found the most common problem on a boat is a failure of the electrical system and that most boat fires are directly related to a faulty electrical system.

She added that stray current from a live wire can destroy a bronze thru-hull, outdrive or propeller in a few days and a non-operative bilge pump, due to wiring corrosion, could cause a boat to sink at an unattended mooring.

To counter all these potential disasters the company's sales pitch is: "Using the wrong type of wire can cost you more in the long run".

Ancor's wire is manufactured from individual copper wire strands and tinned to resist corrosion from salt and moisture. As a result their sales information says that their "wire lasts up to 10 times longer with better conductivity than bare copper wire and the proprietary compound used for our insulation resists salt water, battery acid, oil, gasoline, ultraviolet radiation, heat and abrasion".

Mitchel added: "We are working closely with our international distributors and foresee the addition of metric and language translation markedly increasing Ancor's global presence. We have also updated our packaging and labelling to be more product specific in hopes of increasing customer satisfaction and ease of purchase, both here in the US and internationally."

The Ancor range is distributed in the UK by Mark Downland Marine so we asked Andrew Watson, sales director, how the Ancor range has been accepted and his views on the market in general. He reiterated the views expressed by most of the industry that the increasing demand for more comfort is having a knock on effect.

"Due to the impact of people wanting to have improved levels of comfort on their boat, the number of electrical appliances and accessories has increased significantly over recent years, " he said.

"This has been driven by a lot of the luxury boatbuilders offering the end customer a level of comfort to that of their respective home."

This may seem limited to just the top end of the market, he added, however as boat owners look to upgrade their vessels with the advances in marine equipment the power supply area of the boat is often overlooked.

Standard cable

As for wiring, Watson says in his experience the majority of boats are wired with what would be classed as "standard cable, mainly taken from the automotive market and used in marine applications".

The Ancor range is readily accepted as high quality, he said, both in the UK and the US.

But, he added, it requires something of an educational sales approach when convincing owners or builders to invest the extra funds required into this area of a vessel.

"Not a high enough profile is being put on the importance of these products, " he said, "which is a shame as it would seem there is a good margin on them."

In the US it has been pointed out that boat owners may have a different outlook with the emphasis being on boat usage rather than maintenance. In the UK, say some retailers and suppliers, it would seem that for a sizeable section of the boating public half the enjoyment is in pottering about and maintaining the boat. This could, however, be down to our climate.

But in the US anything that ensures continued, maintenancefree boating is seized upon more readily.

The issue of a boat's electrical system and the retail customer's reticence to invest in it can be qualified as the "insurance syndrome", where a purchase is generally regarded as a negative - something bought that is of use only when the worst things happen.

Obviously there is a reeducation issue that needs to take place in the mind of the retail customer to change this view - particularly considering the opportunity for chandlery and installer sales and margin growth through the wide variety of products available to the market. This is particularly evident with products such as wiring and cables.

Traditionally shorepower connection has been handled by leads and connectors more normally associated with the caravan and motorhome hook up market. These products are commonly used around the UK marinas and serve a purpose, however they do not offer much protection against water ingress and secure connection as some specific ranges on the market.

Biggest area

Without doubt one of the biggest areas of new sales over the last few years has been with inverters and, with the increased need for more appliances that improve the boat user's comfort to as close to home levels as possible, this has driven many manufacturers to increase the products in their range to give greater choice to the end user.

According to Danny Jones the growth in demand has also fuelled the market for of inverters. But as with most things in life "you will get what you pay for" and the higher the specification of an inverter the closer it is to reaching a household quality of 240V AC supply.

With more DVD, audio and computer equipment being used afloat the need for high quality sine wave inverters increased to try and provide as close to an alternating current frequency curve to mains supply as you can get.

There are also modified sine wave inverters, which are more suited to appliances with higher power consumption such as power tools, microwave ovens, etc. The advantage of some of these products is the ability to hardwire the inverter into the boat's wiring system so the shorepower circuit can be powered off the inverter.

One of the biggest players in this market is Mastervolt which has recently added to this range with the introduction of the Mass Combi inverter/charger, which, the company tells us, is 50% lighter and 20% cheaper than the current DAKAR model.

Aimed at locations where space is at a premium the Combi can provide 230v AC at 2kW from a 12/24v supply and can also provide a battery charging facility. Along with this the company have also launched the MAC DC-DC converter. This product is designed to run 12v equipment such as navigation and entertainment equipment from a 24v supply.

And with 24 volt systems being specified on many of the +40ft craft built, Mastervolt obviously hopes that this new product, being 50% cheaper than the previous product, and the fact that it is now programmable for various functions, will prove to be of interest to builders and upgraders alike.

Market links

The link between the caravan and the marine market was also highlighted by Simon Smith of EC Smith of Luton. He pointed out that the high volume of products manufactured for the caravan/RV market tends to dictate the design and development of marine products.

The company supplies Hella and Lab Craft amongst others and has seen a marked increase in sales of LED lighting products. With the main advantages of lower weight and lower power consumption the development of these lighting systems has proved to be very popular.

One noticeable difference between the marine and RV market would seem to be design. As Smith pointed out, "appearance is more important to boaters than caravanners".

After all, he added, they pay a lot more for their boats.

EC Smith imports the BEP range from New Zealand and feels this gives a better mix the to style of the products offered.

"With much of the US output being manufactured in the Far East it's nice to offer products made by a company in their own factory, " said Smith.

But as MDM's Watson put it: "all the products mentioned here are only as good as the electrical system that they are connected to."