On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 03:56:48 +0000, Larry wrote:

I just don't want to be aboard any boat with 120A applied to these
batteries, sealed away in a really tight box where there is ZERO cooling,
effectively, for hours on end.

That can not happen with a proper 3 stage charge regulator. It
certainly is not going to happen on a sailboat using the aux engine to
recharge batteries. No one wants to run that engine longer than
necessary.