George -- Other than a portable Honda Generator of course, your options would be mostly limited to solar. I have a solar trickle charger (can't recall amps) which works for keeping bats topped up but you'd need to calculate your demand vs. the input to determine practicality for the expected evening time use. One additional idea is an outboard motor with battery charger capability. There are some models available on the market which are the right size for a 17'. If I upgrade to a 17' I will look seriously into this approach. Ashley M15 - #478 Morgan Hill, CA
----- Original Message ---- From: Jorge Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 1:47:31 PM Subject: M_Boats: (no subject) Hi, I just recently bought a Montgomery 17 and towed her home in east central Texas. Usually we have year round sailing here (not to rub it in) but are currently having an ice storm that makes most Texans shake their heads in disbelief. Quite frustrating to a new boat owner as well !!!!!! But milder weather won't be too far away. Plenty of time to surf the net with a hot cup of coffee by my side, looking for upgrades and modifications to be made to the boat. One question I have is about power for accessories- I imagine there are quite a few Montgomery's that have a battery for VHF, lights, accessories and all. This 17 does. A heavy deep cycle battery at that. I was wondering, how do you monitor the state of charge in the battery? My current mode will be to fully charge it at home, then hope to made due on the first multi-day camping trip. Don't intend to run much stuff off of it but it would be nice to have a anchoring light at night, lights to read by, hang some X-mas lights for a festive evening, etc, but don't want to unexpectedly discharge the battery, be able to ration for the weekend. Also, would like to get some sort of solar panel to recharge during the day. Any thoughts or experience with this? Stay warm! George J. Caldwell TX Montgomery 17 #600 _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats ____________________________________________________________________________________ Have a burning question? Go to www.Answers.yahoo.com and get answers from real people who know. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
