S/V Sapien's Power Systems

The electrical system on S/V Sapien is simple and completely functional. Four deep-cycle gell cel group 24-12 volt batteries form two banks run everything. I believe that the only way for alturnative energies to work at this stage in "End-User" product evolution is, yep, lower consumption. Whith that in mind; we use bank two (three of the four batteries) for all our house needs, and we use bank one (just one battery) as an engine starter also, we have a spare battery that is kept on a full charge out side of the Battery box in an isolated box of its own to be used as a spare or as the battery for the electric motor on our Zodiac. There is a surprising amount of room in the engine compartment.

The batteries charge from the engine or our small, 20 watt Siemans monocrystalline solar panel. It extends our battery time seriously, but doesn't do it all. Especially in winter or long piriods of cruising. Our big plan was to add a couple of larger solar panels to charge the batteries and to run as little power-draining stuff as possible. On the trip to Hawaii from the San Fransisco bay that we did in 2006 We did the entire trip in 20 days and ran the engine for a total of only 20 hours for the entire trip. Having an icebox rather than a refrigerator lowers the power needs compared to many boats, but we still have lights, computer, all the navigations stuff, etc. We have a foot pedal for water in the head and kitchen sinks, so we can chose not to use the water pump - a simple and a simply fabulous thing. Relying on battery power to access your water seems like such a bad, bad idea..., and we have a regular 110 volt battery charger that we hook up when we haven't run the engine in a while. We try to run the boat every week for the health of the engine as well as for the boost, but we much prefer doing that underway. Running at the dock is, well, embarrassing.

There is 110 volt shore-power in the boat with a fifty foot cable. There are outlets throughout and the water heater works off either 110 or the engine. It's cold waterso if you're sailing and not using the engine and really, the boat is in Paradise and cold showers are ok by me!

(Behind Panel)