no electrical power

[ole miss boarder]

I went to put my boat (1999 prostar) in the water the other day when something happened.
I got it into the water, turned my power on and went to crank it; well in the middle of me starting the motor everything shut off, no power on the entire boat. I tripped the main breaker on the back of the engine and that wasnt it, i ruled out a bad ignition switch already, the battery is hot, all of the connections are tight and not corroded at all. The boat has a perko battery switch on it, im not sure if that has something to do with it, but can anyone offer me a little insight please. Thanks

[Eagle Lake Rebel]

Break out the volt meter and start making checks at the batt switch and move upstream from there.

[ahhudgins]

Is every thing dead? Blower, lights? The exact thing happened to my Maristar a few weeks ago when I went to start it, it started to turn over and then every thing went dead. The problem was my battery connector. I clean my terminals every spring, but the positive terminal was on old brass connector and it had tarnish on the inside of the connector. The tarnish made for a bad connection which caused it to arc and burn when the starter kicked in. All my tools were under the rear deck, which I couldn't raise. I had to wait until someone drove by with a 1/2 inch wrench to remove the deck hinges. Replaced both battery connectors and haven't had a problem since. I now keep a 1/2 inch rachet in the glove box (just in case).