Yet another battery in a 36i.

[timturner]

I am finding that as my 36i is on a swinging mooring, the batteries are never fully charged when I come to use it. I try to sail everywhere so the short distance from the sea to my mooring under power, is never enough to re-charge them. Now, I could fit solar panels, a wind turbine etc but I would prefer to fit another battery - that would be one for the engine and three for service. Has anyone done this and where did the additional battery go? Would the extra battery affect the standard fitted battery charger unit.

[Don Reaves]

Since you aren't generating enough electricity to charge the batteries you have, adding another won't really help. You will just end up with more batteries that aren't fully charged.

Give those solar and wind generator options another thought. If you do that, then another battery might make sense.

[Trevor]

Hi Timturner,

I agree that adding another battery will not help your situation unless you have ability to charge the batteries.

The 36i comes with a 60 amp alternator which means if your two 70 amp-hour house batteries are flat it will take about 2.3 hours of running the engine at reasonably high speed to charge them. If the engine battery is also flat it will take 3.5 hours. Increasing the size of the alternator would help reduce that time but not fix the problem of being on a swing mooring.

I had a similar problem on a power boat on a swing mooring and added a 40 watt solar panel and a couple of solar panel intelligent regulators. It worked very well and I always had topped up batteries when I arrived at the mooring from then on.

I find that the 2 x 70 amp-hour batteries do not keep the entire electrical system running for very long and may end up replacing the 70amp-hour batteries with larger ones eventually. Like you however, I will have to install some additional charging capacity before that makes any sense. I will go for a solar panel to do this.

Good luck,

Trevor

[ledouxjj]

I have a suggestion. Before jump to solar panels take a look at this web site....http://www.duogen.co.uk. Wind gens while sailing are not very efficient but while at anchor they are as long as there is wind... However, this duogen unit can be easily refited with a water impeller and lowered into the water and generate lots of power while under sail with very little drag.... then when at anchor it can be pulled up into place and refit with the wind impellers. They advertise something like DuoGen in water mode produces a steady 8 amps at 6 knots, 11 amps at 7 knots, 16 amps at 8 knots.

I have no affiliation but do plan on employing it on my SO43DS along with my new ENTEC West 4.3KW very quiet diesel generator.

jjl

[timturner]

Thanks, Trevor for your reply. I have now bought a solar panel and controller and intend to fit it over the winter. I would like to have three service batteries and it seems sensible to use the three where they now are and find a space for the engine battery, any ideas? It is a pity that the 70 a/h batteries take up most of the space which does not give much chance to increase the a/h when they need changing. Thanks to other forum members, I am also looking at buying some G4 leds to replace the halogen bulbs. There was not much to see at Southampton so will follow some leads on the internet. Incidentally, I see that Jeanneau have fitted a different saloon table and made other cosmetic changes too, not all improvements I feel.
We have really enjoyed our 36i this year inspite of the weather, five weeks in South Brittany was great but on return in early July, the weather went from bad to worse until now. Must go, off to Dartmouth for the weekend! Tim

[Don Reaves]

I also am considering increasing my battery capacity. But my approach will be to replace the two house batteries, which are wired in parallel (a bad thing as far as I am concerned) with two larger 6-volt golf cart batteries wired in series. Some of these golf cart batteries are about the same length and width as the existing 12-volt batteries, but are taller. If they can fit the existing space you have, it might be much easier to make this replacement than to add another battery.

Don