500 Amps!

You would think that a sail boat blog would have more sailing in it. Or at least pretty 'at anchor' and beach/island exploration photos

*sigh*

I guess I should console myself with the fact that we are getting out for at least one long weekend a month in our last few months of preparations.

Here is how we fit a 500 Amp hour house battery bank plus a 100 Amp start battery underneath the aft cabin berth in a Pretorien.

Because these are AGMs* we can lay them on their side or in our case, one on end. All are in battery boxes for support and to tie them down in case we get knocked over, but only the factory original box has a lid. We have the lids and are going to see which ones we can modify and still fit on top of the box to protect the batteries from any condensation drips etc.

This leaves the most forward of the areas under that berth for the other electrical system stuff that is already installed there (charger, monitor, parallel switch, etc) and a bit of storage.

Carol was the champion electrician and during the install I was just the pack mule.

I cannot wait to fully enjoy this battery bank at anchor. Unfortunately because we are in crunch time, that probably won't be until the first weekend of June at the annual 2010 Wauquiez Rendezvous, and then shortly thereafter, while cruising.

- Livia

* As noted previously, the Sears Diehard Platinum batteries we bought are a repackaged version of the Odyssey batteries. Specifically, they are Odyssey's PC2150.