Spare Parts and Electrical (Captain’s Hour 7)

Thanks for another great discussion. In this video, we shared lessons on spare parts and multimeters, talked about sailboat electrical systems, sailboat shopping, and summer plans.

About the Video: It’s rather fun to watch at 2x speed. Click the wheel on the video play bar and select your speed.

Also, we divided the video into chapters, so if you hover your mouse (or tap) over the video playbar, you can quickly jump to different chapters in the video.

Chapters in Captain’s Hour 7

• Favorite Bahamas Island
• Spare Parts for Cruising
• Multimeter Lesson
• No Plans Travel Philosophy
• Summer Meetups
• Spearfishing Lessons
• Navionics & PredictWind
• Electrical Talk
• Homemade Ice Cream
• Boat Shopping
• Salona 44 Electric Motors
• How To Plan Routes

Thanks for watching here!

I wanted to leave you with a few extra details on the sailboat electrical talk.

Electrical Wiring Ampacity Guide

I went back through my notes from when I wired my lithium batteries. Between my dad, Bruce (a buddy who’s an electrician), and Google, I found some good information.

Definitely check out this free wiring guide from Ancor.

Most important was about fusing the circuit correctly. After this, DC circuits are pretty simple. The biggest technical part is choosing the right type and size of wire/fuse combo for your circuit. A fuse is a device that protects the circuit from overcurrent by melting and breaking the connection when the current exceeds a certain limit.

Fuse Size and Ampacity

The fuse should be rated for the maximum current that the circuit can draw and should be placed as close as possible to the power source. I chose fuses that protected my wires at 80% of their rated ampacity. There are some good charts out there that tell how many amps a wire gauge is rated for (aka ampacity).

Here’s that multimeter tool we mentioned with the alligator leads.

Lithium Charging

Charging a lithium battery requires a charger that can regulate the voltage and current according to the battery’s state of charge. A lithium battery has four stages of charging: pre-charge, constant current, constant voltage, and trickle charge. The charger should monitor the battery’s voltage and temperature and adjust the charging parameters accordingly. Charging a battery incorrectly can damage the battery or cause a fire or explosion.

In addition to solar charging, we use two more charging systems. Here are the chargers we use:

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Watch Captain’s Hour 5 – Offshore Comfort

Watch Captain’s Hour 6 – Winter Weather Patterns

Watch Captain’s Hour 7 – Spare Parts and Electrical