Beautiful day today, not even that hot, breeze was 12-15, no
thunderstorms great day to scrape barnacles from the bottom and do some
sailing. I had not been sailing since mid-June due to the heat and
travel. Got aboard, put in the key, pressed START and
RRRrrr.....rr......r then silence. Huh? I keep my batteries charged
with a solar panel and have never had problems in 20 yrs.
Hmmmm...............OK, I try to relieve compression and get even less,
batteries are really dead. My neighbor has a battery pack for jump
starting his gasoline motor on his pontoon boat, not sure it'll work on
a diesel but we try. I relieve compression and push "Start"
RRRRRRRRRR (compression ON) R......... and silence. Compression OFF,
RRRrr..rr.r and silence. CRAP! OK, So we wont get it started but why
didnt the solar panels keep the batteries charged.
I check my wiring and see that the constant UV exposure has embrittled
the wiring insulation from the solar panel to batteries and it has
simply allowed the wires to corrode thru after 15 yrs.

So, now I have one 4 yr old battery, one 3 yr old battery. Neither has
ever been discharged completely. They were not allowed to discharge by
any use but simply by sitting. Replace or not?