Engine room, guided tour

In my last post I got the engine room lights working, something my dear wife has been at me for quite some… She even bought the strip lights. Talk about dropping ze hint…

Anyway, in that post I have a panoramic stitch together of the engine room. In this post, I thought I’d use that photo to give you a guided tour.

Now, I warn you, I’m going to talk small boat systems at length here. If that bores you, click here for something more entertaining. If not, read on…

That Optima cranking battery in the lower left is the one I talked about here. This new one is still growing strong. Despite my earlier dramas. I still recommend them for a serious cranking battery… Just don’t cycle them. Ever.

Up behind the cranking battery on the bulkhead is the negative bus bar. It’s a serious 300A unit that links all the negatives on both batteries together and earths the engine. The feed for all negative DC on the boat comes from here. Note that the feed from the house set runs through a shunt before arriving at the bus bar, so the Xantrex LinkPro battery monitor can keep track of amps in and out.

Also on the bulkhead, out of the shot, is the circuit protection for the cranking battery; a big 200A fuse from Blue Seas.

The start selection switch was also replaced recently, with this 2500A item from Blue Seas replacing the old bakerlite 300A unit. The old unit had a loose pole, and I didn’t want it shorting. The switch also serves as the cranking battery isolation switch, and the selector for the anchor winch source.

Just below the selector switch is the raw water intake filter. This was a sexy stainless unit impulse bought from Brierley hose and handling. I have been looking for a good unit after being disappointed with the plastic ones on offer. Not keen on breakables below the waterline.