Batteries

The new batteries were in the battery compartment but not connected. I had looked all over the boat for cables to interconnect them, but found too few. There were a couple of old tired cables, two equally tired battery clips, plus two broken ones. So I bought brand new shiny ones from the car electrical store and asked about cables. Yes, they had cables, no they didn't make them up. So I thought about going to a car electrician and see if he had the tools to swage the terminals.

As I thought about this I thought back to the battery room at the BBC World Service many years ago and the thick copper strips joining the batteries. That is what I really needed for the two battery banks. But where from? I thought of Ken, my engineer friend, but that would need explaining to him and waiting for him to source the metal strip. What I needed was a copper strip approx three centimetres wide and three millimetres thick... oh well, have to think about that.

The other thing I had to do was to try and swap the 50 amp and 40 amp breakers for a single 80 amp breaker. The windlass takes a huge current and the previous owner had put two 40 amp breakers in parallel. I had not realised this when I had ordered the breakers. By preference I would like a single 80 amp breaker. So I went back to the electrical store and returned the old breakers. No, they didn't have 80 amp breakers, but what they did have was a dual pole 63 amp breaker. Ideal. I bought that. As I was turning to go I saw what I wanted: Copper lightening conductor - three centimetres wide by three millimetres thick copper strip. 'One metre, please'.

Now I have really smart looking battery banks and just need to attach terminals to the strips to allow the battery banks to be connected to the boat electrics.

Postscript: I was telling the story to a friend who is from the Shetland Isles today. He was the engineer for the airport there and engineer for a transmitter station in the Far East... I got to the point of 'What I really need is copper strip, approx three centrimetres wide and three millimetres thick...' when he interrupted with, 'What you need is lightening conductor strip'. You live and learn.