I bought a Catalina 27 six mos ago and have been day sailing since. No indication of age of batteries- (one starter and one house) both charge to around 12.4 V.
Sailed to the Santa Barbara channel islands, used motor for about one hour on way over and again coming back for the first hour-insurance for dodging the container ships- tried starting the motor with house battery and got nothing, starter battery worked fine though. (Yanmar 3GM)
Question is, shouldn't my house battery have enough juice to start the motor even after 1/2 hour of
radar and a
chartplotter operating. Any suggestions about how to test battery under load.
I don't want to but a new battery if the current one is good. Both batteries look new with no corrosion at terminals.
BTW the trip was incredible for a first experience.