Over night anchoring

[Brunet33]

I have a question about over night anchoring. Say I'm out on Lake Michigan heading up the north cost, and people are telling me different spots to stop at. some have said different marinas to stay over night, others have said spots to drop anchor for the night.

My question is this: If I drop anchor somewhere for a night, how do I prevent running my batteries down to nothing, so that I will be able to start my motor in the morning, when I am ready to leave? What do people do? I have never done this before and would like to some nights, plus it would cut down on some cost.

Thanks for the help!

[tager]

I would disconnect one of the battery terminals! Voila!

[irwin325cc]

I carry a car style battery jumper kit that when I drained my battery at dockside to test this theory worked. I must warn though that I have a gas Atomic 4 that is probably easyer to start than a diesel. 60 bucks and I can run my auto pilot all day with no worries. Still need to upgrade the battery bank.

[Brunet33]

I have heard that this is good thing to have. I think I will get one this winter. Just have to make sure it is charged up.

[irwin325cc]

I suggest that while at dockside or the mooring ball to disconect all chargers and turn all lights on to run the bank completely down. Then see if it will have the charge you need. Oh and the cheap ones are cheap for a reason. Check amp rating and such.
Good luck

[fordo]

If you have the standard set up, you will have at least two batteries aboard and a dial switch that says 1,All,2 and Off. If you set the switch is on "2" then you will only discharge the battery "2", saving battery "1" to start your engine. Try to start the engine on "All" and you will charge both batteries as you run the engine. When you turn the engine off set the dial to "1" or "2" so you won't discharge both batteries.
The car starter jumper kit is just for emergencies, it should not be used as part of your normal setup.

[wwilson]

Originally Posted by Brunet33

My question is this: If I drop anchor somewhere for a night, how do I prevent running my batteries down to nothing, so that I will be able to start my motor in the morning, when I am ready to leave? What do people do? I have never done this before and would like to some nights, plus it would cut down on some cost.

Brunet,

I take your dilemma to be a bit different than the responses so far. To light your vessel without drawing very much current from your batteries use a very low power LED lamp such as this URL
Mega Light™ Utility by Davis

It is not a USCG "approved" anchor light - but at 0300 in the morning it will show infinitely brighter than an "approved" light - powered by a discharged battery, and you will be able to start the engine in the morning.

Wayne

[scottyt]

you really want to set up the battery system properly, it makes life so much easier. a simple battery switch and another battery ( starter type ) is less than a 100 bucks and will allow you to run down the house battery. although you dont want to run down the house battery too low, it will shorten its life. to figure out how much you can use is pretty simple. take your battery size, we will use 100 amps for ease. then you can safely use about 50 % or 50 amps. a normal anchor light will draw around 2 amps per hour, or call it 20 amps all night. each light inside the boat will draw between 1 and 2 amps per hour, ( 10 watts about 1 amp 20 watts about 2 ) ( led light use a lot less ) so if you have say 3 10 watt lights on for 3 hours, thats another 10 amps gone. you have now used about 30 amps over night.

if you are going to over night a lot and have the ability ( space and cash ) aiming for around 200 to 250 amp hours is enough to do about 2 nights if you are just running anchor and interior lights. for a radio use one that takes batteries. this will also leave you some extra amps for things like vhf and water pump if you boat has one.

i run 2 walmart batteries that cost 67 bucks each, and are rated at 115 amp hours each. i can run interior lights, a tv ( actually a computer monitor tied to my laptop ) and running the laptop off of an inverter for 2 nights. now this is with out an anchor light and i can still start the motor of the house bank.


this is a decent thread that explains a hook up option for simplicity and ease of use.
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/electr...help-long.html

[PalmettoSailor]

What kind of boat is it and what are you running that would completely drain your battery bank over night? The house batteries on our boat are a few years old and we can run the anchor light, fridge, and the lights we need from late afternoon to mid morning and still have some juice. We have a separate starting battery so that's a different issue, i just wonder what your power requirements are. Our fridge is horribly inefficent and is the major drain on our battery bank. If we were just using the few lights the batteries wouldn't come close to being drained.

[sailortjk1]

As has already been stated, your House Bank and your Start Bank should really be seperated if it is not already.

Originally Posted by midlifesailor

What kind of boat is it and what are you running that would completely drain your battery bank over night? .

Midlife, I think at this point it is just speculation and a "what if" scenario.
From a couple of their previous post, I believe the original poster is new to cruising and anchoring and is looking for your expertise to help them plan their cruising for next season.