A boat is not a house, and marine wiring is not house wiring. A boat is damp, moving, vibrating and ungrounded, and a connection that would be fine inside a wall will
corrode from the inside and heat up here. Marine cable is tinned and finely stranded for that reason, and
overcurrent protection goes within seven inches of the battery positive terminal under ABYC E-11, because
everything between the post and the fuse is unprotected. A battery can deliver enough current into a chafed
cable to set fire to a boat nobody can walk away from. If you are not confident, this is a job for a marine
electrician rather than a weekend.
A lithium battery needs a charger with a lithium profile. A lead acid profile either never reaches the voltage a LiFePO4 pack needs or holds it at a float voltage it
should not sit at. Never load a boat past its capacity plate, and note
that the federal capacity plate rule covers monohull powerboats under twenty feet propelled by machinery: canoes
and kayaks are not covered, so a kayak stated capacity is the manufacturer own figure and makers do not all
measure it the same way. Wear the life jacket. In early season the
hazard is not the depth of the water, it is the temperature of it: cold water immersion takes your breath and
then your hands long before it takes your core, and a life jacket you are sitting on does nothing at all.
Researched, not professional advice. AnglerTechCalc publishes calculators and buying guidance compiled from published engineering and regulatory
figures, manufacturer specifications, and the consensus of verified owner reviews. We do not test equipment in
person and we never claim to. Published figures and rules of thumb are labelled separately on every page that
carries both, because they are not equivalent, and where a published figure does not exist we say so rather
than printing an estimate.
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