need assistance from someone who has DS II in their driveway

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need assistance from someone who has DS II in their driveway

Postby Roger » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:41 am

So this request goes out to my fellow southern comrades who may have their DS II in their driveway. (Mine unfortunately is an hour away, under a tarp and foot deep blanket of snow, not to be revealed again until March)

Anyhow, here is my dilema. I want to install a battery and nav lights this spring, and have the charge maintained by a solar panel. I want to mount the solar panel ahead of the mast on the cuddy top. I need someone to go out to their driveway and measure the distance form mast front to cuddy front, and width of the cuddy top just in front of the mast. I want to use these figures to determine the size/configuration of the solar panel to buy. Canadian Tire often has them on sale in the early spring, and I want to keep my eyes open for any bargains, but don't want to buy something that won't fit.

Also if anyone else has done this, let me know how well it does at keeping the charge up.
Roger
 
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Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 6:36 pm
Location: Ninette Manitoba

Postby KHFlanagan » Sun Jan 23, 2005 7:39 pm

It is quite cold here today and we have a half a foot of snow. Fortunately, our 1977 O'Day DS II #8260 is temporarily in the garage!

There is less area in front of the mast than I thought. Rough measurements are
13 inches from the front of the mast to the front edge of the cuddy top.
44 inches across the cuddy top at the front edge of the mast.

Your've probably already thought about this, but if you aren't going to use the lights too much, you might just wire them into several D-cell batteries. Keeping a spare set handy wouldn't take too much effort and you wouldn't have to worry about a big 12 volt battery breaking loose and shifting around while you are sailing.

Kevin
Columbus Ohio
Kevin
Columbus, OH
KHFlanagan
 
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Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: Columbus, Ohio

dry cells

Postby Roger » Sun Jan 23, 2005 9:41 pm

Actually, Kevin, I had thought of something along that line. Stringing together two 6 volt dry cells like the large flashlight type batteries. (They are about $12 each) I can buy self contained navigation lights at Canadian Tire that have their own D cells, and operate much like a flashlight. I think they are meant for open aluminum style fishing boats, because they have a clamp to attach to the bow and the stern, but you still have to run forward and turn them on. The can also potentially sprout legs.

I wanted to run the light in my compass off of the same circuit, so that is why I was thinging of a larger battery. My wife changed batteries in her car last month, so I have the old one. It seems to hold enough of a charge to run nav lights and the compass light, but I have to acquire those and test them out to see what the current drain is over a few hours. I was thinking that if I did go with the car battery, I would have to put it in a battery box and strap it down so that it does not bang around while in a seaway. I was planning to strap it down in foront of the mast inside the cuddy, to get the weight forward as much as possible. I was also going to put the bow light ot the front of the cuddy roof as that seems to be an easy place to wire to, and is not cluttered at the stemhead.

Anyhow thanks for the measure. I knew there wasn't a lot of space from mast to cuddy front... 13" is a bit more than I had anticipated. I had figured 10" from pictures I was looking at, but the 44 across, give me lots of room for one of the flat or flexible 2amp solar chargers that occasionally go on sale for about $29, controller built in.
Roger
 
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Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 6:36 pm
Location: Ninette Manitoba


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