Big News! I Belong To A New Yacht Club

This weekend has been something! Cold as a witch's mammary in a copper-tin alloy bra. And really windy. Good time to go see about a yacht club. So that's what I did Saturday - went to City Island to check out Harlem Yacht Club and City Island Yacht Club.

Well, to make a long story short, I joined City Island Yacht Club. There were members there working up a storm on the building, rebuilding the ladies lounge, moving a big doorway, and so forth. Now I have to deal with a mooring. Monday I'll be getting a quote for a 500 pound mushroom from Sound Salvage - I'll let you all know how that goes.

In the meanwhile, I've received my solar panels - I ordered them from Sundance Solar. They have charging systems for RV's and vacation homes and so forth, but they don't have a set with a charge controller and the two panels I wanted - they fit on the seahood and the others don't or are too small. I bought the two 22 watt panels that provide 1.2 amps each (maybe a little more).

Ok, the point here is not how much power ( I've already discussed how much power I need for the refrigerator) but that Sundance Solar was kind enough to give me a deal - The panels were $245 each and the other kit's controller was $119 - but they gave me the two panels and the controller for $550, and they threw in shipping besides. If you're going for solar panels, they have good prices and they are very nice to deal with.

Now that I've got them it's time to figure out all the other power issues, the first being separating the house batteries from the engine starting battery. So the first project is, you guessed it, add a starting battery. Towards that goal Herb and I went down to the boat today (Sunday) to see where the engine starting battery can go. It turns out I can put it under the aft cabin berth behind the shaftlog. I'll get some before before, during and after pictures.

Also, to do all this, I'll need some stuff from Jack Rabbit Marine . To show you what the generalized electrical diagram will look like, check the diagram below.


The key item here is the device labeled "Echo Charge" which monitors battery temps and charge to make sure the batteries don't get overcharged. So now you know the plan. I'll take pictures and so forth to keep you informed and hopefully interested.

See you on the water!