The Search is Over

[DesertAlbin736]

Willie,

So interesting! A25's are all so old that every one is different with various PO changes made over the years. The wiring you did is primo work! Thanks for the shout out mentioning my work. You're the master electrician, I'm just a DIY guy that used Don Casey's book to try to stay as close to ABYC standards as possible. Still, my panel doesn't look as good as yours. I've posted what I did elsewhere on the board, but suffice to say I got into the wiring job as part of a project relocating the batteries to the starboard bench seat locker so I could install a larger 20 gallon holding tank. The San Juans are all No Discharge, and up in the Gulf Islands pumpouts are few and far between. With our old 9 gallon tank we were barely good for a weekend. Now we've doubled our capacity. But in the process of going over to AGMs, boy did that cost a bundle! I got a good deal on the batteries from Cabelas, but that meant getting a new smart on board charger, new solar panel controller, new external smart voltage regulator for the engine, and in the end a new $500 alternator because I couldn't get the stock Hitachi/Yanmar alternator to work with the external regulator without the internal regulator overriding the 13.4V float voltage mode.

Our boat has a Yanmar engine, but recently I was having the same problems with small fuel leaks at those "banjo bolt" hose connections between the low pressure lift pump and the fuel filter that's between the lift pump and the main injector pump. They kept coming loose & would drip fuel into the pan under the engine. Thank goodness it's separated from the bilge! I found a stash of extra copper washers the PO had in his box of spares & replaced all the copper washers. Problem solved.

Anyway, this is the situation we inherited with the old batteries. I upsized all the main battery cables to 1/0 gauge due to the increased length from batteries to the engine.

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Here's the new tank installed where the batteries were. I was lucky to find one that fit perfectly.

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So anyway, we'll be passing through the Seattle area on the way to Bellingham around the 16th. Hood Canal is a little out of our way, since we'll be coming up I-90 from Utah, Idaho, & Oregon through Yakima & taking I-405 to skirt East of Seattle. Don't relish hauling a boat through Seattle traffic! Any chance you might be up in the San Juans with your boat the 2nd half of June? Can you trailer your boat & come on up to Anacortes or Bellingham? Could have a mini Albin 25 rendezvous! Wouldn't that be fun! We'll be knocking around the San Juans until July 1st. We'd be heading straight up into the Gulf Islands, but some friends from Flagstaff, AZ are bringing their O'Day 25 sailboat & have a 3rd person flying up from Phoenix to crew on the O'Day & he can only stay a week before he has fly back. Then we head for Desolation Sound. Wanna come along???

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