Batteries, Will We Drain Ours?

[sante]

Hello All,

Well we sailed in the Atlantic ocean for the first time last Sunday and had a blast!! We just went from Fort Lauderdale to North Miami and back but it was so incredible since the waves were one to two feet and the crystal clear water was at times only 15 feet deep. Of course I have more questions.
We were concerned about running all of our electronics undersail as we wondered would we drain the batteries. We had the refrigerator running but then turned it off. We kept the music, the bilge and the navigational equipment running and had no problems. If we go on longer trips what suggestions do you have?
Our jib went up like a dream, we are still ahving issues with the mainsail, but we will figure it out.
By the way our friends have given us so many sailing books I think we will be able to open a library soon!

 

[Pops]

Read the books.

 

[Ron20324]

I got your PM but will reply here. It's hard to say what your battery condtion will be since there are many variables- primarily how long you run your engine. Shut off the fridge at bedtime and turn back on when you first open it. I have a 5- watt solar I try to keep in the sun when cruising. I have routinely gone out overnights and with 3 or 4 people, we run the lights and fridge freely and not had a serious drain on the batteries. Three days in one place is using up the batteries, but when we motor in and out of anchorages, that helps somewhat recharge. I should mention I have two house 31 batteries and a 24 start battery.... Change to LED bulbs as the others wear out. I have a crank-up/solar powered radio if i really need to save electricity. Turn off the anchor light at sunrise.

 

[Murray16764]

My only advice is to make sure you have isolated your starter battery when you are under sail - powering up all the toys. Don't run your house batteries and starter in parallel. As long as your engine can start, you can charge the house batteries and not get stranded. I learned that the hard way. If your Ben is set up like my 352, you need to manually switch the batteries demending on your mode of operation - sail or motor.

 

[cymeyer]

Hugh, one thing you can do is put in larger, fresh batteries. Can't recall the size of the std batteries in B321, but we went with the next larger size which also still fit in the cases. We also went with AGM batteries which are sealed. These also charge quickly. They have been great.