And you thought this was just going to be a technical piece....

One of the first reactions when another boat pulls into the anchorage you thought you had to yourself is &)%T**(#$! We almost always make an effort to meet our fellow cruisers and it certainly has led to some friendly encounters. We often get invited over for cocktails or invite them to Uproar.

There are unwritten rules to cocktail hour. The first one is BYO! We are all watching our lockers, even if budgets are not a concern. In Canadian waters, adult beverages are more than double the prices in the US. The second rule is to leave after at most two hours so the hosts can cook dinner. The invitation was for cocktail hour, not to move into the quarter berth. Third, bring an appetizer. This can be very simple. Lisa has found Humus in a can. She can add lemon juice, olive oil, jalapeños, spices, etch. Tastes every bit as good as Sabra.

Boat equipment is often a topic of conversation. One cruiser became interested in my solar and other electrical bits and asked me to write down the parts I have bought and recommend. Now to the 12 volts. This would be a good time to stop reading if you are completely satisfied with the electrical system on your boat or just aren't interested.

I attended Nigel Calder's 12 volt seminar at Strictly Sail several years ago. He started out by saying, "At your house, you flip on a light switch, fire up a computer and don't give a second thought to the electrical system. You can get your boat to work that way too but it is going to cost you!" He proceeded to spend 3 1/2 hours telling us how.

First step is to get the proper batteries. He recommended AGM TTPL (thin plate pure lead). You will have a hard tome finding batteries that state they are ttpl but Odyssey batteries are. Lifeline are supposed to have similar qualities and have a good reputation. I bought Odyssey. The reason for high tech batteries is that batteries are limited by the amps charge they can take due to internal resistance. If they have resistance, they get hot and vent or damage themselves. These batteries can take a whopping charge which means if you have a high capacity alternator, you can charge them in a very short period of time.

The alternator needs to be a good one and driven by a serpentine belt due to increased loads. I bought a 180 amp alternator from Electromaax. You also need a microprocessor voltage regulator to match your batteries and charge in 3 steps to charge your batteries the fastest without damage. Some cruisers mentioned they run their engine morning and evening for an hour. I designed my system so I would have to run the engine only every third day for an hour. But it sure cost me!

Shore power chargers should also be a modern, microprocessor 3 step charger. I bought a used one on EBay and it works great. Keep in mind that shore power chargers can put out only about 40 amps unless you buy a whopper. If you buy an AC generator, it will charge through this charger and is limited to the current of the shore power charger. AC generators don't look so great when you compare them to a 180 amp alternator. I believe DC generators are available that might put out more charging amps.

The next link in the system is solar. Nigel Calder said solar is the cheapest way to get energy on a boat. He stated that running your engine to charge batteries costs about $5 per kilowatt/hour! Home power is about $.10 per KWH! I bought two 100 watt panels from Renogy and their MPPT controller. MPPT controllers do interesting things, if the sun is too low to provide enough voltage to charge your batteries, it will boost voltage to deliver more power.

The performance of my solar system was a big surprise to me. I have not needed to run the engine at all to charge batteries! We even make ice with our Seafrost. freezer/fridge system (I highly recommend Seafrost). We don't even plug into shore power when we tie up at a dock unless we decide to run our air conditioning.

How do I know all of this is working? The last and important link to the system, the Visteon 702 battery monitor. Battery voltage is a poor indicator of charge level. The Victron measures the amp hours removed from a full battery and the amp hours you put in by charging. It can give you a percentage remaining in your battery bank, as simple as that. It also gives you amps (plus or minus). This way, you can see what the various devices on your boat consume and what your charging devices are putting back. It is great to see how many amps your solar system is cramming into the batteries!

I would recommend the Victron for all cruising boats, regardless of how much upgrading you do.

OK, enough prattling. If you have questions, send me an Email at tuproar@yahoo.com.

Here is a list and prices of my installation:

Odyssey PC 1800 FT batteries, 215 amp hour, 2 at $550 each.

Xantrex TC40 shore power charger, EBay, $250 used

Electromaax 180 amp alternator $700

Electromaax serpentine pulley kit $550

Belmar MC 614 voltage regulator $650 (Electromaax now has better units)

Renogy RNG 100 DB solar panels (2 each) and Renogy MPPT 40 controller $550

Victron BMV 702 $240

Misc. Cable, connectors, crimping tool. $300

Xantrex x1800 inverter. $350

Total system cost. $4,690. But we can make ice!

If I were to do this again, I would change a few things. I would look into the Voyager alternators by Electromaax and their voltage regulators, these were not available when I bought mine. I would also buy solar panels with zippers sewn into the edges. Look online, these would be easy to install. But so far, I'm very happy with the system.

Russ