Wellcraft Boat Owners Forum

VERY NEW BOAT OWNER I left something on during our last visit to the boat and the batteries are dead. Generator is not working and no shore power. How can I lift the engine compartment to get to the batteries and/or is there a way to charge the batteries without raising it?

Plug the boat in and turn on the battery charger and leave it sit for a day

no shore power, only 110 outlet on dock

Are you talking about the standard 110v outlet like at home? Marinco or Hubblel makes an inexpensive adaptor for your shore power cord. 20 amp to 30 amp converter. No shore power cord? Then your best bet is one of those cheap cigarette lighter jump starters. They probably won’t start the engines but should throw enough juice into the battery to raise the hatch so you can pull One battery and get it to a charger. Then start the engines and go for a ride to recharge everything. By the way, always set your battery selector to one or the other, never both. That way if you forget, you will always have a fresh battery available. The refrigerator is the worst culprit for running down a battery.

If you intend to do any cruising you should have that adapter or make one. I can't tell how many times we have had to use the one we made, relatively cheap to make if you can buy a used shore power cord then go to the big bow and get a 30 amp household weather tight male end. Doesn't have to be very long just about 2-3 ft

Very much appreciate the comments, and apologize for the looong lack of response. Had to abandon the project for family reasons. Where can I get more detailed information on the boat systems. Owners manual is thin on info, and I need to learn much about my boat such as....what batteries work what, when do the battery switches need to be on or off and full explanation on the switches in the control box down below in the cabin, and probably 100 other things. Don't want to keep asking dumb questions and need more boat smarts. I have a 2001 Martinique 2800, twin engine. Also would like to find someone to do service in the Johnson City TN area. Boat is on Watauga Lake. Thanks again!

There is no such thing as a dumb question. When you leave the boat all battery switches should be shut off. Everything should be wired through them including ignition, electronics and fridge. The only exception is that the automatic bilge pumps, and a wire to the am fm stereo to hold presets memory, and possibly cockpit courtesy lights should still be energized. Test the bilge pumps by momentarily lifting and dropping the float switches.
When you leave the boat, you should plug into that 110 volt outlet so your fridge can run on AC current. Shut off all the AC breakers except fridge and battery charger. 15 or 20 amp circuits will be enough to run those but not much more.

Thanks Billm. So, while I am away, I should have the shore power adapter to 110 plugged into the available outlet with the battery switches turned off and that will keep a charge on the three batteries? How about the AC-DC slide switches in the panel in the lower cabin....on or off? Lastly, how does the engine compartment hatch get lifted when the batterys are dead? Is there some kind of release, and then use 2 strong people to pick it up?

Billm....sorry, just went back and re-read your post regarding jumping the battery with the remote power unit in the cigarette lighter in the dashboard. Tried that last visit and nothing happened. Do the battery switches need to be on or off when I do that? Does the DC switch in the panel below need to be on or off?

Battery switches should be off when you are away. All AC switches should be off except charger which should provide intelligent charging to the batteries regardless of DC switches. I believe you said there was a 110 outlet nearby. That should be enough to charge even if it is only 15 amp. If you are running a fridge, keep that AC switch on, too. DC switches can stay on because the battery switch has killed them any way. That is how things should work; someone may have made changes we don’t know about.

If your built in charger is not working, I can’t think of any other way to get the battery charged other than through the cigarette lighter. It should send a trickle charge to at least one of the batteries. Try leaving it for a while with the battery switches on to energize the feed to the cigarette lighter.