Question about power at the dock

[Sublime]

Please excuse the newbie question.
I've got an H260 that previously used an extension cord hooked to a surge protector which a battery charger plugged into which was hooked to the battery in order to keep it charged and the bilge pump working.
My experience has been with boats already rigged for shore power (I don't think this one is?). Just wondering if this is what everyone else has been doing?

 

[Bill Roosa]

Sounds reasonable

If she has an AC panel then she is rigged for shore power. If she doesn't then she isn't. With that said, your bilge pump shouldn't be running that much to drain the battery unless you are leaving the boat for weeks at a time. I had a Catalina 30 that we never hooked to shore power. Just made sure we visited the boat every other week at least and that the prop shaft gland was not dripping.

 

[Benny]

Don't sound to me either that the boat may be rigged for shorepower. Relying on a powerstrip or the shorepower pedestal breaker to protect the boat against fire is not recommended especially if the boat is unattended. We have a trailerable 22' and installed a simple shorepower installation for around $100. We used a Marinco battery charger inlet (basically a through the cabin wall 15 amp, 3 pronged male plug) , a small breaker box to house a double pole AC breaker and a twin receptacle with GFCI protection. Marine grade Triplex wire was used to make the connections. A 25' (long enough for our purpose) construction grade 12 gauge extension cord and a 30A to 15A adapter completes the setup. The electrical extension plug does not lock into the power inlet so make sure the cable is long enough to wrap it around a stanchion. The setup is limited to a 15 Amp load. We plug in a 10 amp (5 x 5) battery charger with the 12V leads hard wired to 2 deep cycle group 24 batteries. Through the shorepower connection we run a 5000 btu window a/c unit when needed. It is much faster to go on the Interstate to get to prime sailing locations than sailing our big boat there.

 

[Sublime]

So anybody on what they're doing with their boats without shore power? Just checking on them more frequently and leaving them unplugged? How do you charge the battery back up?