Our windlass battery is in the chain locker at the foremost part of the
boat.

There are some medium size wires running from the windlass battery to the
main house bank with a switch to allow me to charge the windlass battery
when the house bank is being charged by the engine. I disconnect the
windlass battery when the engine is not running. Sometimes I forget to
connect the windlass battery or forget to disconnect the windlass battery.

Just wondering where others place their windlass battery and how do they
charge it?

Bert van den Berg
S/V Guinevere
New Zealand



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On Wed, 15 Jan 2014 11:02:32 +1300, "Bert van den Berg"
wrote:

Our windlass battery is in the chain locker at the foremost part of the
boat.

There are some medium size wires running from the windlass battery to the
main house bank with a switch to allow me to charge the windlass battery
when the house bank is being charged by the engine. I disconnect the
windlass battery when the engine is not running. Sometimes I forget to
connect the windlass battery or forget to disconnect the windlass battery.

Just wondering where others place their windlass battery and how do they
charge it?

Bert van den Berg
S/V Guinevere
New Zealand

If you are charging he Windless battery by connecting to the house
bank there are, if I remember correctly, switches that can be adjusted
to connect the second battery only after the house bank reaches a
specific voltage and disconnect it when the batteries falls to a lower
voltage which will do pretty much what you want. I think that West
Marine sold them for connecting the house and start batteries for
charging (in a two battery system).

I don't remember prices but it was sufficiently higher then an
alternate (or I was too cheap) so I never bought one :-)
--
Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok

On Wed, 15 Jan 2014 08:33:52 -0500, Gogarty
wrote:

In article ,
says...

We did not have a separate battery for the windlass. We ran heavy guage
cable from the battery bank (house and start batteries) to the windlass
through a circuit breaker. Better weight distribution, batteries always
charged, no charge cables lieing around when not needed. Circuit breaker
easily accessible.

I had a forty foot sail boat rigged like that, and wired with large
welding cables. I calculated that for a run of 80 ft. (up and back)
and a max amperage of 75 that it required #2 cables to carry the load
.... the welding cables were even larger then that :-)

--
Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok

Hi All,

I originally considered running heavy cables from the house bank to the
windlass but there was no cost or weight savings. Our thoughts were that
having a separate 110 amp hour windlass battery gave us some redundancy
should we ever screw up and deplete the main 660 amp-hour house bank (which
is also used to start the engine). I've done this once and believe me, the
trouble of lugging the windlass battery from the forepeak to the engine
compartment taught me to be more careful.

The Voltage Sensitive Relay sold by several shops are intended to direct all
the alternator charge current to a start battery until the start battery
reaches a certain voltage then it parallels the house bank to the start
battery and continues to charge both banks. My situation is slightly
different. I also have two 90 watts solar panels with a solar charge
regulator connected to the house bank and would like the windlass battery to
get some charge whenever the house bank voltage exceeds the windlass battery
voltage and disconnect the two when the house bank voltage is less than the
windlass battery voltage.

Still, it's good to hear from others how they handle this situation.

Cheers,

Bert

"



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We have a setup similar to yours. However, we also have a combiner for the
start and windlass batteries (both on the same unit), allowing us to charge
either just the house, or both, as situations warrant.

We're very careful about running the house battery alone for loads. In
addition, both of the start and windlass batteries have circuit breakers on
them, so we can separate them if needed..

The cables to the windlass battery are still somewhat considerable, but the
cables to the windlass are impressive. If we were to rely on some battery
to heft it remotely, the cables would have been huge. I'd also hate to have
a house battery drawn down by the level of amps used in the windlass, but
that's probably because I've had to start the engine and get the anchor up
in cases of lower-than-I'd-like house battery state, and that's the way the
boat was configured when we bought it.

HTH

L8R

Skip

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

I expect to pass this way but once; any good therefore that I can do, or any
kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

- Etienne Griellet

On Fri, 17 Jan 2014 07:05:29 +1300, "Bert van den Berg"
wrote:

Hi All,

I originally considered running heavy cables from the house bank to the
windlass but there was no cost or weight savings. Our thoughts were that
having a separate 110 amp hour windlass battery gave us some redundancy
should we ever screw up and deplete the main 660 amp-hour house bank (which
is also used to start the engine). I've done this once and believe me, the
trouble of lugging the windlass battery from the forepeak to the engine
compartment taught me to be more careful.

The Voltage Sensitive Relay sold by several shops are intended to direct all
the alternator charge current to a start battery until the start battery
reaches a certain voltage then it parallels the house bank to the start
battery and continues to charge both banks. My situation is slightly
different. I also have two 90 watts solar panels with a solar charge
regulator connected to the house bank and would like the windlass battery to
get some charge whenever the house bank voltage exceeds the windlass battery
voltage and disconnect the two when the house bank voltage is less than the
windlass battery voltage.

Still, it's good to hear from others how they handle this situation.

Cheers,

Bert

I had a look at the old West Marine catalog I mentioned and the
"battery combiner" connects another battery to the main battery when
battery voltage reaches 13.3 VDC and disconnects it when the voltage
drops to below that figure.

An alternate is to connect using a diode which is essentially an
electronic one way valve so the remote battery can receive a charge
bit not provide voltage back to the parent battery but that evolves a
slight voltage drop through the diode.
--
Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok

On Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:40:03 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

We have a setup similar to yours. However, we also have a combiner for the
start and windlass batteries (both on the same unit), allowing us to charge
either just the house, or both, as situations warrant.

We're very careful about running the house battery alone for loads. In
addition, both of the start and windlass batteries have circuit breakers on
them, so we can separate them if needed..

The cables to the windlass battery are still somewhat considerable, but the
cables to the windlass are impressive. If we were to rely on some battery
to heft it remotely, the cables would have been huge. I'd also hate to have
a house battery drawn down by the level of amps used in the windlass, but
that's probably because I've had to start the engine and get the anchor up
in cases of lower-than-I'd-like house battery state, and that's the way the
boat was configured when we bought it.

HTH

L8R

Skip

Although the bow thruster and anchor windlass need significant
currents when they are used, they are normally used for such short
times that the actual energy (amp-hours) used from the batteries is
almost insignificant.

My anchor windlass (31 ft power boat) is fused at 80 amps - say it
draws 60 amps when raising the anchor. It will typically run 2 - 3
minutes to raise the anchor - at 60 amps, this is 120 - 180
amp-minutes, or only 2 - 3 amp-hours. The bow thruster may draw 200
amps, but is only run for a few seconds at a time - normally well
under a minute when docking or un-docking, so that again is only a
couple of amp-hours - hardly worth worrying about when considering
your daily power useage.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI Vancouver BC
peterbb (at) telus.net
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

On Thu, 16 Jan 2014 23:51:15 -0800, Peter Bennett
wrote:

On Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:40:03 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

We have a setup similar to yours. However, we also have a combiner for the
start and windlass batteries (both on the same unit), allowing us to charge
either just the house, or both, as situations warrant.

We're very careful about running the house battery alone for loads. In
addition, both of the start and windlass batteries have circuit breakers on
them, so we can separate them if needed..

The cables to the windlass battery are still somewhat considerable, but the
cables to the windlass are impressive. If we were to rely on some battery
to heft it remotely, the cables would have been huge. I'd also hate to have
a house battery drawn down by the level of amps used in the windlass, but
that's probably because I've had to start the engine and get the anchor up
in cases of lower-than-I'd-like house battery state, and that's the way the
boat was configured when we bought it.

HTH

L8R

Skip

Although the bow thruster and anchor windlass need significant
currents when they are used, they are normally used for such short
times that the actual energy (amp-hours) used from the batteries is
almost insignificant.

My anchor windlass (31 ft power boat) is fused at 80 amps - say it
draws 60 amps when raising the anchor. It will typically run 2 - 3
minutes to raise the anchor - at 60 amps, this is 120 - 180
amp-minutes, or only 2 - 3 amp-hours. The bow thruster may draw 200
amps, but is only run for a few seconds at a time - normally well
under a minute when docking or un-docking, so that again is only a
couple of amp-hours - hardly worth worrying about when considering
your daily power useage.

True. In fact on most cruising boats you can haul the anchor in by
hand too :-) If you really, really have to :-))
--
Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok

"Peter Bennett" wrote in message
news.com...

Although the bow thruster and anchor windlass need significant
currents when they are used, they are normally used for such short
times that the actual energy (amp-hours) used from the batteries is
almost insignificant.

My anchor windlass (31 ft power boat) is fused at 80 amps - say it
draws 60 amps when raising the anchor. It will typically run 2 - 3
minutes to raise the anchor - at 60 amps, this is 120 - 180
amp-minutes, or only 2 - 3 amp-hours. The bow thruster may draw 200
amps, but is only run for a few seconds at a time - normally well
under a minute when docking or un-docking, so that again is only a
couple of amp-hours - hardly worth worrying about when considering
your daily power useage.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI Vancouver BC


I agree about the AH load. My problem is not having dedicated power to that
unit; even if you are absolutely sure that your house bank could handle the
load AND start your engine if needed; sending all those amps a long way
needs monster cable by comparison...

The admiral made me pitch the mikey based on the amps it would use; it's the
same argument, other than that it's not going to affect starting the engine
(at least if we've remembered to go to "house" and not "both"!), but it's
gone, none the less.

L8R

Skip, in Vero

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

I expect to pass this way but once; any good therefore that I can do, or any
kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

- Etienne Griellet

"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...

trim

I agree about the AH load. My problem is not having dedicated power to that
unit; even if you are absolutely sure that your house bank could handle the
load AND start your engine if needed; sending all those amps a long way
needs monster cable by comparison...

Your problem is needing as much or more amperage than your
average two-bedroom home.

--
Sir Gregory