Upgrading the batteries - pt i

 Fixing the broken switch - pt II of the battery upgrade.

While tightening the nut holding the new +ve cable ring terminal to the #2 connection on the back of the Battery Selector Switch, I over torqued it and this crack happened. A few choice Expletive Deletives crossed my lips. 

As soon as I realized my screw up, I researched for a replacement switch. WM had them locally for over $110 plus tax, or Amazon had them, prime, free shipping the day after the 4th of July, $42. Buy Now!

The new switch is due to arrive tomorrow, July 5th.

It's an easy replacement. Switch to OFF, disconnect the 3 battery +vs. disconnect the cable from the +ve Fused bus bar and the +ve to the system. I'll slide a 3" piece of heat shrink over the ends of any live cables.

Remove the switch, insert the new switch, remake the connections and switch the battery bank to On (#1)

Ok, however, I am still finishing off the upgrade to the battery system, from 3 x 100Ah LiFePo4 batteries to 5 x 100Ah LiFePo4 batteries - all the same brand and model.

I'll change out the cables so that they match the design above.

The 4/0AWG cables are matched for the +ve and -ve lengths to ensure equal charging and discharging from all batteries.

The new Switches ( Yep, I accidently ordered 2 ) arrived today. If feel a lot better tomorrow ( Sunday ) I'll complete the wiring per the diagram above.

• Make up a 20.5" Positive cable and 20.5" Negative cable.
• Turn the system off
• Remove the old 4 Way switch and install the new one.
• Connect the New -ve cable and the new +ve cable.
• Torque everything down.
• Turn the system back on
• Turn the Solar Charger back on.

The two battery banks do need to be equalized by leaving them all connected in parallel for about 12 hours, That means leaving the boat without power for 12 hours  - scary.  Working out how to do that.

The biggest concern is leaving the boat without Bilge pump power. I could just put a regular Lead Acid battery connected to the bilge power circuit breaker overnight.  I'll look at doing that. 

Felt worse today, Sunday, :( rotten cold - Yuk ), no plans till Tuesday, work day. But if I feel better tomorrow, I'll do some of the boat work.

Feeling much better, we're heading down to the boat this morning.

Peggy was not feeling so great, she took on my cold. So down to the boat alone.

step one was to make up the new 4/0 AWG cables for the original battery bank terminal blocks and the 4 way switch then it was time to turn the power off to install them. So no AC and no Fans - I should have charged up the cordless fans!

Not me, but an image to show how it felt working beneath the cabin seating to get this work done.

It took some coaxing, but got it done. I did have to disconnect the -ve cable at the Shunt in order to pull the cable out near the battery end such that I could complete the crimping of the ring terminal at that end.

It took a total of 3 hours on a Sunny South Florida afternoon with no wind and in the cramped quarters. My shirt was a mop, jeans too.

By 6pm I had everything done that was planned for the day and turned the power back on. The cables to the second set of LiFePo4 batteries were still disconnected.

By 13:00 next day, the batteries were fully charged so now is the time to balance the two battery banks.

I'm expecting a delivery this afternoon, if that arrives soon, I'll still have time to nip down to the boat and connect up the new batteries and test that part of the system.

Life event got in the way of finishing the job yesterday, but today I was able to get this job done and install the new Vent Cowls - see this link 

Ok, back to finishing this project.

The two new Chins 100Ah 12 Volt LiFePo4 batteries are installed and wired into the system.

I was able to install the fuse block cable covers.

The thin Red and Yellow cables are 1/0AWG cables, that thick cable is a 4/0 AWG cable that connects from the fused terminal block to the #1 position on the 4 way battery selector switch.

The black strap ties the new batteries down. There's a small storage space on the side of the battery bay, I'll empty that and install a bulkhead at the end of the bay.

After completing the wiring from the new batteries, I checked the torque settings for all of the terminal bolts & nuts then put the terminal block covers in place. The cover for the -ve block would not fit as the screws need to be about 1/4" longer and I did not have them on the boat. Surprise !  I'll go to ACE Hardware on Monday to get them. The cover is sitting on one of the batteries right now ( lower right of the photo )

Time to test. I first check the 5 battery BMS' and  I had tested the voltage difference between the new batteries and the old, less than 0.1 volt. Good start.

Next I switch the battery selector switch from #1 to #2, gave the system a couple of minutes for the Victron Touch 50 to come back to life and checked out the state of the system. Everything was working but now running off of the two new LiFePo4 batteries. All good so far.

Next I switched for #2 to #1 & #2, so now the boat was using the full 5 batteries. Again, all good.

Using my Tablet, I connected to the Victron system and updated the Battery Capacity from 300Ah to 500Ah.

With everything setup, next test was to see if the system would run our Air Conditioning. We can check that off! We ran it for over an hour and the system was only down to 85% and that was with the AC running 100%. Looking good so far.

While the AC was running in order for us to test the full battery bank, I completed the install of the new Cowls - now the boat looks good too!

This job is complete although I do plan on upgrading the wires that connect to the Victron system from 1/0 AWG to 4/0AWG,. As mentioned previously, the system is fused down to 300Amps, so I'm not worried about the cables, the system never gets close to 300A.

Ok, cross this one off until the winter when we'll replace those cables.

After all of this, we actually stowed all of the tools and packed up the left over bits from the project.

Now to plan some sailing.

See you on the water.

Replacing the Vent Cowls

Replacing our Vent Cowls - Again!

We purchased Eximius in May of 2015, at that time it had plastic Vent Cowls and they deteriorated badly in just a few months. Was it something we did when cleaning them? There was always a grotty sticky feeling to the outer surface. I would put it down to UV damage but the boat was in a slip in Port St. Lucie, it should have been no different in our slip in Fort Lauderdale. So, I replaced the cowls in 2018 and again in 2021. They turned grotty in 2023! Two years! And now, four years later they too are grotty and sticky again! Enough! They cost $190 for two, time to remove the lock on the wallet and buy some decent cowl vents.

Initially searching Amazon but really could not find any that would fit the original Catalina Plastic Dorade boxes. Searched the rest of the web, at least it seemed like it, but finally I found Buchan Marine - Cowls - that's what they do!

They have several styles to chose from and I like the low profile cowls, I know that I have leant upon the plastic ones several times, the low profile design should reduce the risk of damage if that happens again.

The Deck plate should fit where the existing vents are and will look a whole lot better. Definitely an upgrade for Eximius.

Perhaps I'll get them in time for Father's Day 😉

I sent an email to Scott Buchan at Buchan Marine https://www.buchanmarine.net/ventillation and he replied on Saturday evening! He suggested that I confirm the deck plate size, so I'll go down to the boat later today/early Monday and measure the plates. The hole pattern appear to be the same and I did see this pic in their photo gallery images.

That looks exactly like our C34 except the teak is in better condition.

Just an FYI, the deck plate allows the vent cowl to be removed and blanked off. We're in SoFla, and part of our Hurricane prep on the boat is to blank off anywhere that water can get in. Being able to just unscrew the vent cowls and blank the holes off with the Deck plate is a big help. The existing plastic cowls do have a blank, but it's not screwed down and we have used gorilla tape to hold it down during preps for previous hurricanes.

I ordered the 4" Low profile vent cowls this morning ( June 10th 2025 ) from Scott at Buchan Marine:- 

https://www.buchanmarine.net/product-page/stainless-low-profile

BTW, this will make Peggy happy as she detests the plastic ones.

Nice to be adding some Boat Bling for a change.

June 11th, the day after sending an email to Scott at Buchan Marine, I received a reply with an invoice for the total cost and shipping for the 2 vent cowls. PDQ response time.

The invoice is for the two cowl vents with Deck Plate and Cap, two bug screens, and a T handle ( for the Deck plate Cap ) and Shipping. I'll not post the total as I'm guessing the price is going up like everything else. 

Update: June 12th. Scott replied to my payment via Zelle. Confirmed the shipping address.  So far so good!

I'm not being sponsored by the Company, although I have been chatting to Scott since I placed the order.

They are a small business specializing in Ventilation Cowls and have been around for 25 years. As a small business owner myself, I appreciate really good customer service and Scott clearly wears that hat.

Buchan Marine are located in California. But they are not a new startup and have been in business for around 25 years. 

  

Scott just advised me that if you mention Eximius in your order, he will give you a 10% discount

https://www.buchanmarine.net/?eximius10.

Hopefully, the new Cowls will arrive this coming week. We're planning on some other work on the boat this week after working Monday & Tuesday on a customer's project. We'll install the Cowls the day after they arrive as it should be a quick and easy install.

The new Cowls should ship in the next day or two, seems they do individual QA checks and a final Polish before shipping. I'm getting excited, bright shiny things do that.

So, just to have a comparison, here's a pic of the Starboard side Cowl Vent on the boat:

The plastic really cannot handle the South Florida Sunshine, it's way beyond 'cleaning'

If you notice the Black Dorade housing, it's because I refinished both of them a few years back. Time to make them Boatiful again to honor the new boat bling.

Anticipation is growing.

The insides look pretty grotesque too!

Again, the astute will notice the nice non-skid finish in the pic, that was done earlier this year ( 2025) 

Got an email from Scott today, Cowls should ship tomorrow. WooHoo.

Thursday, July 10th. Arrival Day.

Oh My Goodness !

The package arrived a day early, it was waiting on our doorstep when I got home from the grocery store.

The box was heavier than I expected, it took an effort to restrain myself from opening the package before I had stowed the foods in the freezer.

I carefully used a box cutter to open the substantially packaged box, I didn't want to scratch the new Cowls.

WOW ! They are gorgeous. Sorry if I'm swooning with praise, but they really are awesome. You know how it feels when you install a new Stainless Steel Turnbuckle to replace one made in the dark ages? Looks Good, Feels Solid, the shape is amazing. I'm totally impressed. 

The package contained the two new cowls, two blanking plates ( Shiny Stainless too ), two bug screens and a Stainless Steel blanking plate key to aid installing / removing the blanks.

Ok, so I obviously have a thing for big bright shiny things, but I didn't realize how bad, I'll have to work on that. Meanwhile, I have to go to the boat to install them. From what I can tell, it should be a simple task of unscrewing the old cowls and installing the new. I'll put some butyl tape between the stainless retaining ring ( very shiny ) and the original plastic/fiberglass base. That's it.

Of course, life events are happening and I'll have to wait till later before going down to the boat. But.... if there's a chance break in the life events, I'll be down there in a flash.

Just picking up one of the cowls brings a smile. I should have done this years ago.

I'll hold off posting this until after the install and I have some pics to show them in place.

In my garage, they look fantastic, growing antsi for the install.

Saturday July 12th - Install Day

Despite the threat of a stormy day, we headed down to the boat to finish another project and to install the new Cowls.

The old cowls were now really gooey, the plastic has been really affected by UV here in South Florida.

It only took a few minutes to remove the screws holding down the old cowls.

I did have to drill holes in the Dorade base as the holes in the cowl's stainless steel base did not line up with the holes either the original holes for the cowls installed by Catalina nor the two replacement plastic cowls that I have installed during the past 10 years. That only took a minute for each cowl.

Here's what we started with. The top of the old cowls is horribly sticky. I was able to rotate the cowls in order to reach the screws in the base.

The new cowl next to the removed old plastic cowl.

This is a significant upgrade and is long overdue. I Should have done this job right when we first replaced the original cowls. At least, I presume they were original, but I'm guessing that as the replacements were in such bad shape after just a couple of years, then the ones in place when we purchased the boat in 2015 were probably also just a few years old.

And this is the result of the new replacement.

Absolutely gorgeous. Super solid, high gloss and they won't fall off. 

There's hex head set screw on the inside of the cowl, just a couple of turns with an allen key wrench and the cowl is locked in place.

I am totally pleased with these cowls. They did take a few weeks for delivery but was it worth it. You Bet!

Thanks Scott. I'll send you an email about some other cowls I might be interested in replacing.

Now when I say " See you on the Water " I'll be thinking that you'll know it's Eximius, she's wearing her Jewelry and looks Fine!

See you on the water.

Adding More LiFePo4 batteries

 Adding more LiFePo4 Batteries to Eximius

The two new batteries have been sitting in the boat for a couple of months, they are jambed into the locker but not really secured.

I did have a couple of hours this morning between other jobs, so I started on the project. Step 1: Replace the existing On/Off Battery Switch with a new Off/1/Both/2 switch.

The new switch requires a 2 5/8" Diameter hole and the old switch only required 2 1/2". So I removed the old switch, screwed a piece of plastic on the inside of the bulkhead and marked the center of that, then drilled using a 2 5/8" hole saw. Nailed ! ( Sorry, not a good pun.) The new hole was in the perfect position.

Next I connected the wire from the Battery Bank Terminal block to the #2 position of the new switch and the connected the output wire. Turned off the Solar breaker, reconnected the +ve wire to the new switch and turned it all back on. Worked great, Checked all connections were tight, closed it up. All done.

Ok, next part of this project: Secure the new Batteries

Simple, just make a webbing hold down strap and secure it in place using a couple of footman loops.

The Batteries are 9" high and the two are 15" wide.

So the straps need to be 3" + 7" + 5" and 3" + 16+ a loop in length.

ie. One Strap will be 15" including a 3" loop

the other will be 22" including a 3" loop on one end and a 2" loop on the other.

I'll make the strap at home, then go to the boat, attach the straps to the loops and drill and screw the stainless steel footman loops in place. Easy job.

The webbing restraints are stainless steel and really grip well.

Got them installed. It was awfully hot today. it only took about 20 minutes to secure the batteries with the strap but by then I was really feeling the heat. I should have learned from our trip up to Jensen Beach a few weeks ago.  

With the Batteries now secure, next step is to mount the Fused Terminal Blocks.

We'll work on the wiring upgrade in steps.

I'll be mounting the Positive Terminal Block with Fuses on the inside of the new battery box and connecting wires that are the same length as the original 3 battery wires.  The intent is to make sure that the voltage drop is the same for both sets of batteries to ensure even charging and discharging from both battery banks.  

We have to mount the two Terminal blocks but not connect them to the master battery switch. That will allow working in the cabin in the summer heat with the AC running.

Next, with the Terminal blocks in place, I'll make up the wires and connect the Batteries to the +ve & -ve terminal Blocks.

At that point, the Additional batteries can be connected to the master battery switch. The existing system is designed for a max current of 300Amps, but with the two additional batteries, it's capable of 500 amps ( Each battery wire is protected by a 100Amp fuse. ).

This means that I should upgrade the cables from the Master battery switch to the DC connection of the Victron Multiplus to 4/0 cables. I'm not sure that we'll be able to get the 4/0 cables through the 38 year old conduits from beneath the Nav Table, Under the cabin soul and up to the Battery Boxes. That means we'll have to consider replacing the conduits with larger diameter. 

Monday June 23rd. I worked on a canvas project this morning as well as picked up our Mercury Outboard, not working but I have a plan.

This afternoon we went down to the boat and put the sunshades up in an effort to cool the boat for the time we need to work in the cabin.

We, yes, Peggy was a big help, installed the positive and negative terminal blocks and covers.

This pic shows the setup for the original batteries, I  used the same type of terminal blocks for the new batteries. Also, just ordered another 4 post 600 amp terminal block for the combined negative connections.

We ran the AC for 3 hours and dropped the batteries to 61% - it ran consistently the entire time. Hopefully the next time we go to work on the boat it will be initially cooler due to the sun shades and we can make better progress. Anyway, the next job is to make the cables for the two new batteries connection to the terminal blocks. The Positive terminals have 100Amp fuses on each post.

Ok, back at the boat, we cut the new 1/0 AWG Red & Yellow cables for the new batteries, but only had 1 pair of 1/0 5/16" ring terminals, all of the others were 1AWG Grrrrr. Ordered new terminals from Amazon while still on the boat.

The AC was running while we did all of the 1/0 cable prep and the Installation of the new 600Amp -ve Power post terminal block -- this will join the two sets of -ve terminal blocks to the -ve connection to the 500Amp Victron Shunt. Remember, the cables from this post will be 4/0 AWG and will easily handle the 500amps available. We're nowhere near that when running the Air Conditioning but it's nice to know that we will not be likely to over clock the wires.

Next time at the boat we'll connect the rest of the cables from the two batteries and the -ve terminal block to the  -ve post.

Making progress until a setback today :(

On our last trip, we left the boat with the two new batteries connected in parallel to the fused terminal block (9/+ve ) and the negative terminal block.

Today I made up the cables that connect the +ve terminal block to the #2 connection on the Blue Sea 6007m 4 way selector switch and the able from the -ve terminal block to the single -ve terminal post. Used a 1 1/8" hole saw to cut holes between the old battery bay and the new battery bay. Good progress.

When it came to connect the -ve cable to the single -ve terminal  post, I realized that the post would not hold 3 of the 3/8" 4/0Awg ring terminals. Grrrr.

Solution is to replace the post terminal with a 4 post terminal. Already have one in the workshop. Solved.

But then!!!! As I tightened down on the bolts for the Blue Seas 6007m 4 position switch, the casing broke! Arrgggggh!

Ordered a replacement, should arrive Saturday. Looked up the Torque settings: Gemini gave me this result: For the Blue Sea 6007m 4-way switch, the terminal stud torque setting is 120 in-lb (13.56 Nm).

This applies to the 3/8" (M10) tinned copper studs on the switch. 

Luckily, I have a Torque Wrench 2 - 26Nm.

Soooo, next trip to the boat I'll be armed with the wrench, the new 4 post terminal block  and the new BlueSea Switch.

This means I should be able to actually complete the setup of the new batteries excepting the replacement of the 1/0 AWG wires from the battery bank to the Shunt and the Fuses before the Victron System.  That's quite a task and I'll post separately on that part. It does involve in removing the old 1/0 wiring and conduits, reworking the fuse setup and installing the new 4/0Awg wires. They go from under the cabin soul on the stbd side below the Galley sink, beneath the flooring, up into the Port side locker ( home of the holding tank ), up the port side storage cabinets then aft to the Fuses and Victron.  Not looking forward to that one. 

See you on the water, but not for the next few days - we'll miss going out on the 4th. That will be the first time in many years.