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On an offshore trip we had to charge the battery twice a day for an hour with the alternator on the engine. The captain ran the engine with the gear on neutral.
It was on a leisure sail to Bermuda, not a race. The boat was moving nicely on a broad reach.
Is there any good reason not to charge on a forward drive?
In fact the opposite is true - diesels do not like to be run unloaded - and even if he had a whooping huge 200 amp alternator that's not enough load (about 5hp).
Thanks for your respond.
I am sure that saving fuel is on every captain's mind in an offshore voyage.
in that case what would be the difference in fuel consumption in a 50 HP yanmar engine?
Not sure what the engine was on the boat your were on, but if you know the model, you can google the fuel curve. For comparison, here is the fuel curve for my 30 hp.
Just to round-out this discussion, at anchor I charge with the transmission in reverse. It keeps a load on the diesel. I keep a good watch during this process.
I set my anchor with at least 1500 rpm in reverse. If my anchor drags while charging, it is not properly set.
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