Should a person come in contact with a live (hot) wire and a path to ground, the result would be a current through the person’s body that can cause injury or death.
This situation is potentially more common and more hazardous in marine environments, where water is frequently present and can serve as an additional conductive element in electrical equipment – which is why specific guidelines around ground fault protection and main shore power circuit protection are detailed in American Boat & Yacht Council E-11 standards.
Those standards require a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) - a device that protects against electric shock and operates by sensing the difference between currents in the “hot” and neutral conductors.
