I am due for a battery replacement (I found that Inua has two starting batteries (!), now in poor shape). I searched this site and found a couple of good, not too old conversations about batteries. I copied them over into Discourse, in case someone else finds themselves in need of some advice come Spring.
Hi Jon,
I didn’t see your question ( specific to Inua ) in Discourse, so I’ll reply here.
The advice for the other boats sounds good for the timeframe it was offered and the usage described by the boat’s owners. I’m not sure your plans for Luna match the other owners and I’m not sure if recent developments in battery chemistry or charge controllers would offer any value for you and Luna, but this is a perfect time of year to continue the conversation about power management on a Nonsuch… with updated information.
I like to use this forum in a conversational way. In this case, INA may offer more value for you and Luna, if other owners were to share current (2025) product info with you and if you share nearterm plans for Luna.
There are some aspects of marine power management that you may want to consider before investing in new batteries.
Some 26’s were wired for shore power and others were not. There were some interesting conversations about shore power for Inner Peace a few months ago. Anyhow, the power management advice for Inua may be different depending if she is wired for shore power and berthed where it is available.
The last 3 years have brought some pretty dynamic changes in battery technology and charge controllers. Depending on your plans for Inua this may be a good time to begin to chart a new course for power management that makes it easier to utilize emerging technology.
The “stuff” that consumes power on our boats is also evolving rapidly. Again depending on your future plans for Inua, you may want to take the opportunity to design in some capacity for additional amities. For example, before Soave, I always brought my “refreshments for the day” in a cooler ( I was a racer/daysailer). It never occured to me how much I would enjoy having an onboard fridge. When Soave’s compressor started having trouble keeping up in July, I started to explore replacement options and discovered some very nice portable fridges ( with ice capability ) wired for 110v ac or 12v dc. Would that be appealing for Inua some day? I ended up downloading the “refrigeration tech program” from the Matrix and repaired Soave’s compressor myself, but it was a close call vs a new portable fridge.
This conversation serves a dual purpose of sharing ideas about power management and sharing perspective regarding the dual value of a forum.
I see value in both :
Engaging in conversation specific situation and current products.
Leveraging information from similar situations from prior posts.
I value current info specific to a situation more highly than information from prior posts. Both are useful and neither can be replaced by the other, but the camaraderie of interacting with other Nonsuch owners is priceless.
Maybe we can lure more folks to try Discourse if we offer to continue this discussion of power management strategies on Discourse?
> I didn’t see your question ( specific to Inua ) in Discourse, so I’ll reply here.
As you well know, given the current very limited membership in Discourse at this time, there have been no conversations about Nonsuchs in the forum as of yet. Instead there are discussions about the site’s configuration and potential uses. My posting was here since this is where we all are.
It was not a question. I found the postings from 06/24 and 03/21 to be of value as background info when I was looking into my options. As I originally said, I pushed them forward to make them readily available to others, and to get some clicks on Discourse to continue to introduce its usefulness.
> There are some aspects of marine power management that you may want to consider before investing in new batteries.
Since this numbered list was directed at me:
Yes, I know that Inua has shore power.
One of those posts was from last summer - not too old. I have already purchased a battery maintainer. I did look outside those postings.
Yes, I considered my use case (day sailing) when making my decision.
(Background - to make sense of the comments following the numbered list, you should know that Rob has been trying to educate me about his perspective on conversations and forums).
> Maybe we can lure more folks to try Discourse if we offer to continue this discussion of power management strategies on Discourse?
If you think that’s a good idea, then you should do it. I will offer my assistance.