My Rig

"Aja" is a 1978 Hunter 30 that formerly had a Yanmar YSM8. Diesel engines, properly maintained and used, can live seemingly forever.

So I murdered mine - sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.

Once that was accomplished (don't ask), I set about getting my electric system. I had been looking at the technology for some time and had already picked the ThunderStruck EV kit as my best choice given the size of my boat, my understanding of the technology and a potentially mis-placed notion that I could use it for regeneration under sail. The kit is complete (throttle, controller, motor, starter switch, etc) except for the actual physical mounting (which would later prove one of my biggest challenges).

A word about the Thunderstruck kit - it's completely wrong for a marine (even freshwater) installation. The wires are un-tinned and the connectors not sealed. At the very least put some of that liquid electrical tape on every connection - at best re-build it with heat-shrink, adhesive-lined connectors and tinned wire.

I am using 12(!) 12V Walmart deep cycle batteries for a total of 345AH capacity. I am re-thinking this strategy as I am finding that in practice, I hardly use any battery at all, or I need more than I can carry - any not much in between. So being more religious about running my genset after say, 80AH and dropping down to a 230AH bank may be a better strategy and will save about 280lbs in battery (my already heavy - 9800lb displacemnt - boat is a bloated pig right now).

I was originally thinking that I could take advantage of re-distributing the weight in my boat (lower, and to the middle) to improve sailing performance. But after seeing the bathtub in my cockpit after the first rainstorm realized I pretty much had to match the balance of my diesel so the scuppers would drain.

I have an el-cheapo, noisy chinese 2KW genset that leaks gas if I'm not careful - gotta get me a Honda

I use 12V charging vs 48V - my thinking was a) balancing batteries would work better and b) they're a lot cheaper (I'm a cheapskate). I'm using ProMariner 12's which are very low amp chargers. This may be a problem as it's basically leaving my batteries in a discharged state longer than they should be - which I'm reading can contribute to sulfation.