SAIL

A DIY Battery Bank Expansion

For quite some time, I had contemplated an expansion of the house battery bank aboard our 1987 Sabre 38MKI, Orion. There were several potential issues that had kept the project from becoming a reality.

But fortunately, while not trivial, in the end, they were all surmountable, and I was able to install an additional pair of batteries to augment Orion’s overall storage capacity.

The boat’s original owner had set up a robust system with a standard lead-acid, deep-cycle starting battery and a house bank. The latter was composed of a pair of 6-volt lead acid Trojans wired in series to produce 12 volts while retaining their rated amperage capacity, in this case 215 amp hours (Ah). There were also a pair of alternators attached to our Westerbeke 38B, the original factory unit, and a 150-amp Balmar, with double pulleys belted

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