2001 40ds

[chuck5499]

guys -- I did the battery replacement prior to commissioning. I put in 6 golf cart batteries and a new starter. Currently run about 743 ah give or take a few now that we had a lightening hit and fired the starter and i know it did some damage to the house batteries. Something that has to be replaced before the lines are loosed. I also had a 150 amp alternator installed and of course the lightening allowed me to reinstall it.
I am currently planning on putting on 3-4 flexiable solar panels as the main battery charging system and use the engine as a make up.

By the SoOkay -- hunker down sounds like you are to get your first tropical storm this weekend. tie her up good
chuck and soulmates

[SoOkay]

guess I should have checked the weather before we made plans to sail out on friday to nowhere and return Sunday! oh well, I guess i'll be checking noaa.gov later

[chuck711]

Well you have to remember we had a 33 foot boat with 2 animals room was short.
However doing it again.
Bring:
15" LCD TV/VCR 12 volt Magnavoix Great setup for boat
Satellite phone
Best Lightweight Foul Weather Gear

Forget:
12 volt coffee pot.That was stupid
So many Clothes We did come from Michigan and exper. cold weather
Heavy Foul Weather Gear
Rods and Reels

Picture : Antigua Race Week

[SoOkay]

I'd second the satellite phone, we're working out a way to use it for internet access and download forecast maps, which we can overlay on our chartplotter and see what we are sailing into! If you want details i'd be happy to outline it. You need a raymarine charplotter for it and the forecasts are 7 day predictions with 2 daily updates!

[chuck711]

I think being able to overlay realtime weather on your radar is great!

We were in Grenada fin 2004. Our friends had a satelite phone and we
watched Ivan head directly for us. However "Local Knowledge" Kept
telling us" Don't worry Mon' it always turns we aint't been hit for 50 yrs"

Well it did his us dead on.....however it was quite interesting.
Looking back I wouldn't have miss it for anything.

I think I would go all solar. Gensets are costly and they wear out quickly.

When you really look at it the only reason we go thru making and pumping amps into the batteries is just for a fridge.......is it really worth it?

Think about $4000 for solar $3000 for wind generators with both of them
you'll still run your engine every 2-3 days in a sunny windy environment.

The cost,wear and tear of the engine or genset could be pegged at $1500 a year. Add is fuel if you do this full time. $2000 a year

Thats a lot of money. Simplify........ buy a block of ice.

[chuck5499]

chuck711 & SoOkay -- thanks for the thought -- i run raymarine chartplotter and radar but my current plan is to get a ham license and use the ham radio for weather and internet access along with some communications. one more electronic toy that gets replaced next time i get hit with lightening.
Any thoughts on the ham?
chuck and soulmates

[SoOkay]

Ham is a great way to go, but with weather, the more info I can see, the hapier I am. that's why actually seeing an overlay on my charts i thought was great.

I'm going for the sat phone for communications, it's more dough, but I can touch base with folks back on land when I want to, and it works for internet access. I'm sailing into a rough storm i can call and leave a message with "hey i'm here headed this way, I'll call you in x days" Besides, with it not hardwired into the boat, it might survive a lightning hit.

[jayncee]

We have a 2003 43 DS with the generator installed aft above the swim platform. We saw one boat model with it installed forward but it really brought the bow down in the water.

[chuck5499]

jayncee -- where are you sailing from --
chuck and soulmates