Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A Ship's Battery for 'Sandpiper'



After considering various options, I chose a Halfords standard HB063 12 volt car battery. This battery requires no maintenance, apart from charging.  I have placed it amidships within the cabin, where it makes good ballast. The GPS units can now be powered by it, as I have linked them via a three-way cigarette adaptor. The Autohelm plugs into an extension socket that is wired to the battery.


At the moment I am reliant upon charging the battery through a mains connection, but I may buy a solar panel charger for topping it up when I am cruising for more than a couple of days without an opportunity for plugging into a mains power source.

Very shortly ‘Sandpiper’ will be ready for her first sail with me, and I am hoping for a fine spell of weather next week when I can try her out. Two or three days messing about on the River Crouch should give me an idea as to how she handles and of her potential for cruising further afield.

2 comments:

Canoe Sailor said...

I used an 11 watt solar panel to keep my 100 amp hour boar battery topped up on trips. Buy the end of a three day trip the battery was quite low, but by Friday night it was usually recharged.

William Serjeant said...

Thanks for that. I was thinking on similar lines, but I shall have to avoid running the Autohelm for long periods.

Cheers,
Bill.